Emmanuel Macron arrived in China on Wednesday April 5 for a three-day visit, where he hopes to “re-engage in dialogue” with Chinese President Xi Jinping to plead the cause of peace in Ukraine. The Elysée believes that China alone can “tilt” the situation for better or for worse.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be in Poland on Wednesday. A key Ukrainian ally who has played a leading role in encouraging Western military and political support for kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion.
In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that it had summoned the charge d’affaires of the French embassy in Moscow to protest against “false publications” on atrocities attributed to Russian forces in Ukraine.
Zelensky in Poland this Wednesday
This visit comes as Ukraine prepares to carry out, in the weeks or months to come, a counter-attack to retake occupied territories in the east and south of the country. During the visit, Volodymyr Zelensky will meet his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda to discuss issues related to security, economic and agricultural cooperation, including those relating to the transport of Ukrainian grain through Poland, as well as issues related to history between the two countries, said the head of the international policy office, Marcin Przydacz.
“This is an official visit”, but the Ukrainian president “wants to meet the Poles and the Ukrainians living in Poland” as well, explained Marcin Przydacz, to the private Polish radio station RMF FM. “This visit should be taken as a sign of confidence and thanks to Poland and the Poles,” added the Polish President’s Foreign Affairs adviser on Tuesday evening. Poland has taken in more than a million Ukrainian refugees since the start of the conflict in February 2022. The NATO member country has also played a key role in persuading other Western countries to provide tanks and other types of weapons to Ukraine.
Biden and Macron want Beijing’s help to accelerate peace efforts
French and US Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden signaled in a phone conversation on Tuesday that they want China to help “accelerate” the search for a solution to the war in Ukraine, a source has learned. French diplomacy. This discussion between the two heads of state took place a few hours before the departure of Emmanuel Macron for a three-day state visit to China, to Beijing then Canton.
This conversation showed the “common will of France and the United States to engage the Chinese to accelerate with us the end of the war in Ukraine and to build a lasting peace”, it was specified from the same source. During this discussion, the American and French presidents also wished “to obtain from the Chinese a contribution to the global effort of North-South solidarity” and “to build with China a common agenda on climate and biodiversity”. During this state visit to China, from Wednesday to Saturday, Emmanuel Macron must have talks with his counterpart Xi Jinping who, because of his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin, appears decisive in the efforts to find a way out. to the war in Ukraine.
The French charge d’affaires in Moscow summoned by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Moscow “strongly protested against the statements published by the French Embassy on social networks concerning” the crimes attributed to the Russian army, the Foreign Ministry said in a press release. According to Russian diplomacy, “it is categorically unacceptable to make false accusations against our military”. She accused France of “actively supplying military equipment and ammunition to the Ukrainian army and thus doing everything possible to prolong hostilities”.
According to Moscow, the publications in question relate in particular to the massacre attributed to Russian forces in Boutcha, a town near Kiev, where the bodies of coldly executed civilians were discovered after the withdrawal of Russian troops. Moscow denies any involvement in these deaths and has repeatedly referred to a “staging” of kyiv. The Russian Foreign Ministry once again raised “unfounded” accusations on Tuesday, claiming to have seen no “evidence” of Russian crimes or “objective investigation” of the facts.
Russian official targeted by the ICC to intervene at a meeting at the UN
Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, targeted by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), is due to speak virtually on Wednesday at an informal meeting of the Security Council hosted by Russia on the Ukraine. The meeting aims to “provide objective information on the situation of children in the conflict zone in Donbass and on the measures taken by the Russian authorities to evacuate children in danger”, according to the Russian permanent representation. But Ukrainian authorities accuse Russia of having “kidnapped” more than 16,000 children from Ukraine since the offensive began a year ago. The ICC issued a historic arrest warrant in March against President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, finding them responsible for the “war crime of illegal deportation” of Ukrainian minors.
This announced participation angered the United Kingdom, which said it blocked the planned broadcast of the event on the UN website. “If she wants to account for her actions, let her do it in The Hague”, headquarters of the ICC, added a spokesman for the British mission.
The lawyers of the American journalist detained in Russia saw him in prison
In a letter to the editor dated Tuesday, April 4, the Wall Street Journal indicates that his employee, the American journalist Evan Gershkovich, received a visit from his lawyers in the Russian prison where he has been detained for six days. The journalist’s lawyers, hired by the editor of the “WSJ”, “were able to meet him today (Tuesday) in prison”, writes Emma Tucker, its editor-in-chief. “Evan is in good health, and he is grateful for the influx of support from around the world. We continue to call for his immediate release,” she continues.
Evan Gershkovich, Russian correspondent for this prestigious American daily and former AFP journalist in Moscow, was placed in pre-trial detention last Thursday until at least May 29. He appealed the decision on Monday. The journalist was arrested in Yekaterinburg (Urals) by the Federal Security Service (FSB), which accused him of “espionage”. His arrest comes in a context of increased repression in Russia against the press since the offensive against Ukraine, which has greatly strained relations between Moscow and Washington.
