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Ukraine: US, China discuss bridging gulf over invasion
Moscow accused Ukraine’s army of firing a missile at a residential area in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk region.
Top advisers to Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in Rome on Monday to discuss China’s support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, even as the Kremlin denied reports that it had requested Chinese military equipment to use in the war.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi spoke, with the Biden administration increasingly concerned that China is using the Ukraine war to advance Beijing’s long-term interest in its competition with the US.
Sullivan was seeking clarity on Beijing’s posture and was warning the Chinese anew that assistance for Russia - including helping it avert sanctions imposed by the US and Western allies - would be costly for them.
“I’m not going to sit here publicly and brandish threats,” Sullivan said as he made the rounds of Sunday news shows ahead of his trip to Rome. “But what I will tell you is we are communicating directly and privately to Beijing that there absolutely will be consequences” if China helps Russia “backfill” its losses from the sanctions.
Sullivan and Yang met in Rome amid reports that Russia has asked China for military equipment to use in its invasion of Ukraine. Russia, however, on Monday denied it needed China’s help.
“No, Russia has its own potential to continue the operation, which, as we have said, is unfolding in accordance with the plan and will be completed on time and in full,” said Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman.
The Russians have seen significant losses of tanks, helicopters and other material since the start of the war more than two weeks ago. Ukraine, while overmatched by Russian forces, is well-equipped with anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
23 killed in Donetsk
Russia said on Monday that an attack by Kyiv’s forces on the separatist stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine had left 23 people dead, with the military accusing Kyiv of committing a “war crime”.
Moscow accused Ukraine’s army of firing a Tochka-U missile at a residential area in Donetsk, in one of the most serious attacks on the city since Russia sent troops into Ukraine over two weeks ago.
“The use of such weapons in a city where there are no firing positions of the armed forces,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, “is a war crime”.
Official separatist Telegram channels distributed photos and video of the aftermath, showing burnt out cars, bodies strewn in the street, and damage to shops.
In an interview with Russian state-run television, the head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said the shot-down rocket had inflicted damage to residential areas. “People were waiting in line near an ATM and were standing at a bus stop,” he said in remarks broadcast on Russian television.
“There are children among the dead,” Pushilin said, adding that the casualty count would have been higher had the rocket not been downed.
Nine people killed in airstrike on TV tower
At least nine people were killed and nine more wounded in an airstrike on a television tower in Ukraine’s northern Rivne region on Monday, governor Vitaliy Koval said. “There are still people under the rubble,” he said in an online post.
Ukraine urges Russia’s ‘immediate’ expulsion from Council of Europe
Ukraine on Monday demanded that Russia be immediately expelled from the Council of Europe (COE), saying it had no right to remain a member of the pan-European rights body after invading its neighbour.
The council’s executive body, the committee of ministers, had suspended Russia from all its rights of representation a day after the invasion. An expulsion would mean that Russians no longer have recourse to the European Court of Human Rights, which is part of the COE.
No member state has ever been expelled from the council, which was created in 1949.
Both Russia and Ukraine are members.
