U.K. sees Ukraine pushing Russian forces back, reclaiming ground
Ukraine has re-occupied control of towns and defensive positions up to 35 kilometers east of the capital Kyiv, according to the U.K.’s Defense Ministry, with Russian troops seen falling back on “overextended supply lines.”
The Defense Ministry said via Twitter that Ukrainian forces are likely to continue to attempt to push Russian forces back along the northwestern axis from Kyiv toward Hostomel Airfield.
Meanwhile, in the south of Ukraine, Russian forces are seeking to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to move west toward the port city of Odesa, the ministry said. Their progress is being slowed by logistical issues and Ukrainian resistance, it added.
— Sam Meredith
China has the power to stop the war in Ukraine, professor says
Russia will have to comply if China wants Moscow to end the war in Ukraine, says Phillips Payson O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews.
If Beijing told Moscow that they want the war to end, Russia would have “no choice but to try and end this war relatively soon,” O’Brien told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday.
“China has that much influence,” he said.
However, China doesn’t want to look like it is abandoning one of its important partners, and is playing a very “intricate and delicate game.”
“There’s a strategic interest not to abandon Russia and not have Russia be too humiliated. But there’s an enormous economic interest to have good relations with the West,” he said.
China’s economic interest in Russia is “tiny” compared to the interest in NATO or European Union countries, O’Brien added.
— Abigail Ng
U.S. says NATO will ‘respond’ if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a press conference after the special NATO summit at NATO headquarters. The meeting is to discuss the current situation in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Michael Kappeler | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
U.S. President Joe Biden has insisted NATO “would respond” if Russian President Vladimir Putin uses chemical weapons in Ukraine, without providing further details of what this might mean.
“We would respond if he uses it,” Biden said at a press conference, referring to Putin. “The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.”
His comments came after a flurry of meeting summits with the European Union, G-7 partners and NATO allies.
— Sam Meredith
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says EU sanctions against Russia came ‘a little bit too late’
A view of the Extraordinary Summit of NATO Heads of State and Government held in Brussels, Belgium on March 24, 2022.
NATO | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says European sanctions against Russia over its invasion came “a little bit too late” and pushed for the EU to swiftly bring Europe’s second-largest country into the bloc.
“You implemented sanctions — we are thankful,” Zelenskyy said, according to a translation of a video posted on his official Telegram channel. “These are powerful steps, but it was a little bit too late. Because if it happened preventatively, Russia would not have started a war, or at least — nobody knows for sure — there was a chance.”
Zelenskky said Ukraine needed to be in the EU “soon” and called on lawmakers to make sure Kyiv’s accession to the bloc did not happen too late.
“And now we are preparing the membership of Ukraine in the European Union. Finally. And here I am asking you to not be too late. Please.”
— Sam Meredith
