Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv urges allies not to recognise Putin as ‘legitimate president’ as Moscow announces nuclear weapons drills | World news

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday that China had all along worked “vigorously” to facilitate peace talks in Ukraineaccording to Chinese state media.

China did not create the crisis in Ukraine, nor was it a party to it, Xi told French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a trilateral meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Ukraine urges allies not to recognize Putin as the “legitimate president” of Russia

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says China’s president has an “important role” in de-escalating tensions over nuclear threats made by Russia.

Von der Leyen was part of trilateral talks between her, French President Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping at a summit in Paris on Monday.

She pressed Xi Jinping to use Beijing’s influence to stop Russia’s war against Ukrainewhile also telling the Chinese leader to accept fair global trade rules.

Von der Leyen also said she was “confident” that Xi Jinping would continue to play an “important role” in de-escalating tensions over nuclear threats made by Russia, hours after the President Vladimir Putin ordered nuclear weapons exercises involving troops based near Ukraine.

Both Macron and von der Leyen indicated that trade had been a priority in the talks, stressing that Europe must protect its “strategic interests” in its economic relations with China.

The Associated Press has more information on the planned workouts. It says it was the first time Russia has publicly announced exercises with tactical nuclear weapons, although its strategic nuclear forces regularly conduct exercises.

Tactical nuclear weapons include aerial bombs, short-range missile warheads and artillery munitions and are intended for battlefield use. They are less powerful than the massive warheads that arm ICBMs and are designed to obliterate entire cities.

The Russian announcement appeared to be a warning to Ukraine’s Western allies about deeper involvement in the more than two-year war.

French president Emmanuel Macron reiterated last week that he does not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, and the UK foreign secretary David Cameron said Kiev’s forces would be able to use long-range British weapons to strike targets in Russia.

Dmitry Medvedevdeputy head of the Security Council of Russia, which is chaired by the president Vladimir Putinsaid in typical hawkish fashion that Macron and Cameron’s comments risked pushing the nuclear world towards “global catastrophe”.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the exercise was aimed at “increasing the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to carry out combat missions” and would be held on Putin’s orders. Missile units of the Southern Military District along with the Air Force and the Navy will participate in the maneuvers, the announcement said.

Britain’s ambassador to Moscow, Nigel Casey, has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russia’s state-run RIA news agency reported on Monday. Reuters said the ministry did not say why, but there was speculation it was linked to statements made last week by Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who said there was no problem with British-supplied weapons. used by Ukraine to strike inside Russia.

It comes as Russia cited Western statements as justification for upcoming nuclear weapons exercises.

Ukraine accuses Russia of “nuclear blackmail” over weapons exercises

The German ambassador in Russia was recalled for consultations after Berlin accused Moscow of launching cyberattacks against its defense and space firms and the ruling party, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday.

Ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff will return to Berlin in accordance with diplomatic protocol, the spokesman said, three days after the Russian envoy was recalled in protest against a campaign Berlin says was launched two years ago by a group linked to Moscow’s GRU military intelligence.

The charges come at a time of heightened concern in Europe about suspected Russian hackers and spies following Moscow’s incursion into Ukraine in 2022 and on the eve of the European elections.

Germany will not be represented at the inauguration of the Russian president Vladimir Putin for his next six-year term on Tuesday, a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Relations between Russia and Germany, which was the largest buyer of Russian oil and gas, fell apart after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022

The Pentagon said Monday that AeroVironment Inc’s Switchblade-600 munition is the first weapon publicly confirmed to be part of the Replicator initiative, which aims to rapidly deploy thousands of military drones.

The Switchblade-600 gained notoriety because Ukrainian the military uses it to hit Russian troops.

In an effort to improve the US military’s autonomous unmanned capabilities, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks floated the $1 billion replicator idea in August. The two-year program aims to integrate unmanned aircraft and technological innovation into defense programs at an accelerated pace.

French President Emmanuel Macron told Chinese President Xi Jinping it was essential they coordinate Ukraine.

To read more about the talks between these two leaders, you can follow the reports of our colleagues on Europe blog here:

Russia is conducting nuclear weapons drills in response to a possible Western deployment of troops to Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were poised to press Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday to reduce trade imbalances and use his influence with Russia over the war in Ukraine.

You were inside Europe for the first time in five years, at a time of rising trade tensions, with the European Union investigating several Chinese industries, including electric vehicle exports, while Beijing is investigating mostly French brandy imports.

France is hoping to push China to pressure Moscow to halt operations in Ukraine, with little progress except for Xi’s decision to call President Volodymyr Zelenskyi for the first time shortly after Macron’s visit to Beijing last year.

Electricity has been partially restored in the city of Sumy after a Russian drone attack knocked out power to 400,000 customers overnight, local authorities said.

Work to restore electricity continued in the morning as 91 settlements out of 1,325 affected remained without electricity in the region, national grid operator Ukrenergo said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Electricity has been restored in the affected settlements and parts of the city of Sumy,” the region’s military administration said on Telegram.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 13 attack drones against Ukraine. Air defense systems shot down 12 of the air weapons over the Sumy region.

Russia to conduct nuclear weapons drills