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Several Chinese public banks are limiting financing to purchase raw materials from Russia for fear of Western sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg news agency reported on Saturday.
China and Russia have strengthened their ties considerably since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and subsequent Western sanctions.
To power its growth, the Asian giant has also increased its purchases of Russian commodities, with about 30 percent of Russian oil and gas now sold to China.
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The world must brace for a long war between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow launched an invasion of its pro-Western neighbour, French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Saturday.
“I can tell you one thing this morning it is that this war will last,” Macron’s told France’s annual agriculture fair.
“This crisis will last, this war will last and all the crises that come with it will have lasting consequences,” Macron added, warning: “We must be prepared”.
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Russia is suspending space launches from French Guiana and withdrawing its technical personnel in response to EU sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the space agency said Saturday.
“In response to EU sanctions against our enterprises, Roskosmos is suspending cooperation with European partners over organising space launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and withdrawing its technical personnel… from French Guiana,” Dmitry Rogozin, chief of the Russian space agency, said on messaging app Telegram.
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The Russian military says it has launched a barrage of cruise missiles at Ukrainian military facilities, reports AP. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Saturday that the military struck a range of Ukrainian military installations with long-range Kalibr cruise missiles.
He said that since the start of Russia’s attack Thursday, the military has hit 821 Ukrainian military facilities, including 14 air bases and 19 command facilities, and destroyed 24 air defense missile systems, 48 radars, seven warplanes, seven helicopters, nine drones, 87 tanks and eight military vessels.
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The Russian army has targeted Ukraine’s military infrastructure with cruise missiles from the air and sea, the defence ministry said on Saturday, as Moscow pressed on with the invasion of the pro-Western country.
“During the night, the armed forces of the Russian Federation launched a strike with long-range precision weapons using air- and sea-launched cruise missiles against the military infrastructure of Ukraine,” defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in televised remarks.
He said that the Russian army only targeted military infrastructure without damaging “residential and social infrastructure”
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A high-rise apartment block was hit by shelling overnight in Kyiv as fighting raged between Russian attackers and Ukrainian forces, emergency services said Saturday.
The authorities said the number of victims was “being specified” and that an evacuation was underway. They posted a picture online of the tower block with a hole covering at least five floors blasted into the side and rubble strewn across the street below.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said online that the building had been hit by a missile.
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Civilians — some of whom have never held a gun before — prepare to battle with Russian tanks with the Ukrainian defence ministry urging them “to make Molotov cocktails and neutralise the enemy”, reports AFP.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that “partners” were sending weapons to help Kyiv fight Russian troops, adding he had spoken by phone with French leader Emmanuel Macron.
“A new day on the diplomatic frontline began with a conversation with Emmanuel Macron,” Zelensky tweeted. “Weapons and equipment from our partners are on the way to Ukraine. The anti-war coalition is working!”
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This morning, Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy posted another video from central Kyiv. The 40-second video appears to address false rumours. The leader, according to a partial translation by the Kyiv Independent, says: “There’s a lot of false information on the internet that I call on our army to lay down their arms and that there’s evacuation,” he said. “We are here. We are not going to lay down our arms. We will defend our country.”
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