While Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive, a new epicenter seems to emerge: Avdivka, 35,000 inhabitants before the invasion. Around this city, in the center of the front line, the fighting intensified. According to’Institute of War Studies, an American think tank, the clashes are the most intense there. In front of Bakhmout, target for months of relentless Putin, in search of a symbol, after more than 400 days of war.
To resist the Ukrainian counter-attack, which aims to retake part of the East, currently in the hands of the Kremlin, and to do better than this summer, when the invader had lost a lot of ground, Russia is proceeding with changes of command by reinstating a controversial general, and tightening its military ties with China, without the latter officially asserting itself as pro-war. Daily point.
Controversial Russian general back under high tension
A risky change. According to British Ministry of Defense, General Mikhail Teplinsky is back in the war in Ukraine, after being dismissed from his post in January 2023. The return of the man, whose role is still unknown, risks generating “tensions” within the Russian command, according to British intelligence. It is also the sign of a renewal of Russian strategy, after a winter when Russian troops largely skated, and as they prepare for a new Ukrainian counter-offensive.
China shows its military proximity to Moscow
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu hailed “strong” ties with Moscow on Sunday during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. “We have very strong ties, which go beyond the military-political alliances of the Cold War era” and are “very stable”, he said during this meeting broadcast on Russian television, according to their translation .
China is willing to work with Russia” to “strengthen strategic communication between the two militaries” and “make new contributions to maintaining global and regional security and stability”, not to mention the conflict in Ukraine. This visit of Li Shangfu in Russia, which must last until April 19, comes after that of Xi Jinping in March in Moscow.
Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in early 2022, Beijing has officially declared itself neutral and has never publicly condemned Moscow. Xi Jinping has also never spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, China published its 12-point position on the Ukrainian crisis at the end of February, in which it formally calls for respect for the sovereignty of all countries – including Ukraine.
New prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine
130 Ukrainians have been released in the past few days, the Ukrainian presidency announced in a message posted on Telegram on Sunday. “The exchange took place in several stages over the past few days,” said kyiv, without indicating the number of Russians issued in return. In February, the administration of Volodymyr Zelensky had already announced that 116 Ukrainian soldiers had been recovered, against 63 Russians.
Russian opponent Kara-Mourza to stand trial
A Russian court is to rule on Monday on the fate of opponent Vladimir Kara-Mourza, accused in particular of high treason, who faces 25 years in prison in a case emblematic of all-out repression in Russia. Vladimir Kara-Mourza, close to prominent opponent Boris Nemtsov assassinated in 2015, was one of the last Kremlin critics not to be behind bars or exiled abroad. His trial is being held behind closed doors.
“When those who instigated and started this war (in Ukraine) will be qualified as criminals, and not those who tried to stop it”, had declared in particular the opponent, during his last declarations, last April 10. According to the Russian news agency TASS, the opponent, who has been declared a “foreign agent” by the authorities, is accused of “high treason” for having criticized the power in public interventions in the West.
