China hits back over Zelenskiy’s peace summit claims
China has never “fanned fire or fuelled the flames” of the Russia-Ukraine war, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry has said.
The country believes all efforts should be recognised in supporting peace measures in the Russia-Ukraine war, spokesperson Mao Ning said, addressing a question on an upcoming peace summit in Switzerland in mid-June.
The remarks follow an accusation by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Russia and China are trying to weaken his planned global peace summit.
Zelenskiy had on Sunday accused China of backing efforts to deter leaders from participating. “Regrettably, Russia, using Chinese influence on the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit. It is unfortunate that such a big, independent, powerful country as China is an instrument in the hands of Putin,” he said.
China attaches great importance to its relations with Ukraine and remains its largest trading partner, Mao said on Monday, adding that China’s position on the peace conference is very “open and transparent”. “We believe that we can get the understanding and support of all parties,” Mao said.
Key events
Here’s a bit of detail from the Financial Times’ report that the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline project has run into trouble. Spokespeople for both Beijing and Moscow issued statements in relation to reports that the project is deadlocked – so in case you’ve not read the FT’s report, this is what that’s all about.
Citing three people close to the matter, the FT reported that the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline project has stalled over demands made by Beijing on price and supply levels.
While Russia insists it is certain that a deal on Power of Siberia 2 will come “in the near future”, sources say an agreement remains distant, while Russian gas sales have plummeted. On Monday, a spokesperson for the Kremlin said that gas talks will continue and “there is no doubt the agreements will be reached”, according to Reuters.
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What is Beijing asking for? It concerns both prices and supply, according to the FT’s sources. The people familiar with the matter told the newspaper that China wants to pay little more than Russia’s heavily subsidised domestic prices and would only commit to buying a small proportion of the pipeline’s planned annual capacity.
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What does this mean? It shows how Beijing has the upper hand in this deal – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left president Vladimir Putin increasingly dependent on China as Gazprom suffers heavy losses.
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What is the Kremlin asking for? When Putin and Xi met last month in Beijing, Putin made three key requests, according to the people familiar with the matter. A deal on the pipeline; more Chinese bank activity in Russia; and for China to decline to attend a peace conference being organised by Ukraine.
Philippines to attend Ukraine peace summit
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has met with the Philippine president to call on regional leaders to attend a global peace summit on the Russia-Ukraine war that he accuses Russia and China of attempting to thwart.
In a rare surprise trip to Asia, Zelenskiy arrived in Manila late on Sunday after speaking over the weekend at the Shangri-La defense forum in Singapore, where both leaders spoke critically of China.
The Associated Press reports that he met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who pledged that his country would take part in the peace summit, Philippine press secretary Cheloy Garafil said. “I’m happy to hear today from you that you’ll participate in our peace steps,” Zelenskiy told Marcos. “It’s a very strong signal.”
Marcos welcomed a decision by Ukraine to open an embassy in Manila this year which would hasten efforts to deliver assistance.
“We have ourselves been trying to promote the continuing adherence to international law in our part of the world,” Marcos said amid ongoing tensions in the Indo-Pacific region as both the US and China vie for influence.
“The issues that you are facing are similar and in parallel to ours and, therefore, the position the Philippines takes is always to promote peace.”
China is ready for mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia on the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline project, its foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning has said amid reports that it had stalled.
Asked about whether the project has been paused, Russian state news agency Tass quotes Mao as telling a briefing: “The search for mutually beneficial common points, deepened integration of interests, achievement of mutual success is a consensus that has been reached by heads of the two countries. We are ready to cooperate with Russia for implementation of this important consensus.”
Beijing means “to permanently deepen mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries in all directions,” Mao added.
The comments come amid reports that progress on the building of the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline has stalled. The Financial Times has reported that the project was deadlocked over China’s requirements on prices and volumes of energy supplies.
Russia hopes the pipeline, which would supply China with Russian gas, can help to address its declining gas exports, which have plummeted since its invasion of Ukraine, leading to record losses for Gazprom.
Russian airport imposes flight restrictions
The Russian city of Kazan’s airport has introduced temporary flight restrictions for safety reasons, Reuters cites Russia’s aviation body as saying.
These restrictions are often implemented because of expected or live Ukrainian drone attacks.
Russian minister warns US that ‘mistakes have consequences’
We have a bit more detail on the comments made earlier by Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, who issued a warning to the US against making “mistakes that may have fatal consequences” by allowing Ukraine to strike targets on Russian soil.
The decision by the US to soften its red line means Kyiv can use US weapons in counter-fire efforts near the border with the Kharkiv region.
“I would like to warn American leaders against miscalculations that could have fatal consequences. For unknown reasons, they underestimate the seriousness of the rebuff they may receive,” state news agency RIA quoted Ryabkov as saying.
“I urge these figures (in the U.S.) … to spend some of their time, which they apparently spend on some kind of video games, judging by the lightness of their approach, on studying what was said in detail by Putin,” Ryabkov said, referring to comments made last week by Russian president Vladimir Putin, who warned that Nato countries were risking a serious escalation in the conflict.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Guinea on Monday, his ministry said, in his first trip to the country in over a decade as Moscow tries to bolster its reach within Africa.
Russia’s foreign ministry announced the visit on the Telegram app. It is Lavrov’s first trip to the West African country since 2013. Russian state news agency Tass said Guinea would be part of a tour of African countries but did state which other nations Lavrov would visit.
Russia has worked to boost its influence in Africa in recent years, after its relations with the West nosedived after it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Last July, Russian president Vladimir Putin invited African leaders to a summit in Saint Petersburg where he said they agreed to back a multipolar world order and to fight neocolonialism.
He had hailed the “commitment of all our states to the formation of a just and democratic multipolar world order” during a statement to the media following the summit. But the Kremlin also blamed a low turnout in 2023 – just 17 heads of states attended the conference – on “interventions” by western powers.
China hits back over Zelenskiy’s peace summit claims
China has never “fanned fire or fuelled the flames” of the Russia-Ukraine war, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry has said.
The country believes all efforts should be recognised in supporting peace measures in the Russia-Ukraine war, spokesperson Mao Ning said, addressing a question on an upcoming peace summit in Switzerland in mid-June.
The remarks follow an accusation by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Russia and China are trying to weaken his planned global peace summit.
Zelenskiy had on Sunday accused China of backing efforts to deter leaders from participating. “Regrettably, Russia, using Chinese influence on the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit. It is unfortunate that such a big, independent, powerful country as China is an instrument in the hands of Putin,” he said.
China attaches great importance to its relations with Ukraine and remains its largest trading partner, Mao said on Monday, adding that China’s position on the peace conference is very “open and transparent”. “We believe that we can get the understanding and support of all parties,” Mao said.
Russia’s foreign ministry has warned the United States against making “mistakes that may have fatal consequences” in relation to permitting Ukraine to strike targets on Russian soil, Reuters reports citing the Interfax news agency.
Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Ukrainian attempts to attack Russian early-warning radar systems would be foiled and that Moscow may respond asymmetrically to such efforts.
The remarks follow a major shift in which president Joe Biden on Thursday moved to allow Kyiv to use US weapons in counter-fire efforts within Russia near the border with the Kharkiv region. The decision followed days of mounting pressure on Biden from western allies and the Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelenskiy, who argued that the delay in the use of western weapons had cost lives.
Ukraine is planning record electricity imports from European countries following a wave of Russian strikes that caused significant energy infrastructure damage over the weekend, its energy ministry said.
Imports are expected to rise to 27,178 megawatt hours (Mwh), Reuters reports.
Ukrainians in all but three regions of the country suffered outages, with the state-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo saying shutdowns impacted both industrial and household consumers.
The shutdowns follow Russia’s barrage of drone and missile attacks on energy targets that injured at least 19 people on Saturday.
Welcome to today’s Ukraine blog. The time in Kyiv is approaching 11am.
The speaker of Georgia’s parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, has signed the “foreign agents” bill into law, Reuters reports, citing Russia’s TASS news agency. Critics of the legislation have dubbed it the “Russian law” as they argue it is modelled on a 2012 Russian bill used to suppress pro-western organisations and there are concerns that Georgia could move closer to Russia.
The law – which means organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad must register as agents of foreign influence – has sparked mass street protests.
Here is a brief run-through of the latest developments on day 831 of the Russia-Ukraine war. We’ll bring you the latest updates as we get them throughout the day.
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Almost 1,000 mourners gathered in central Kyiv on Sunday for the funeral of a high-profile journalist and volunteer combat medic who was killed in action last week.
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Donald Trump risks being a “loser president” if he wins November’s election and imposes a bad peace deal on Ukraine, Zelenskiy told the Guardian, saying it would mean the end of the US as a global “player”.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged world leaders to come to a peace conference in Switzerland this month, and accused China of discouraging attendance at the meeting. “Regrettably, Russia, using Chinese influence on the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit. It is unfortunate that such a big, independent, powerful country as China is an instrument in the hands of Putin,” he said.
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Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in most of the country on Sunday, a day after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure.
