Russia-Ukraine war live: France says it expects China to send ‘very clear messages’ to Russia

Opening summary

Welcome to our live coverage on Ukraine. It is just after 10am in Kyiv and in Moscow and I’m Donna Ferguson. Here are the headlines:

• France’s top diplomat has said China must speak clearly to Russia over its war in Ukraine. “We expect China to send very clear messages to Russia,” said Emmanuel Macron’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, after meeting his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Beijing. “We are convinced that there will be no lasting peace if it is not negotiated with the Ukrainians. “There will be no security for Europeans if there is no peace in accordance with international law.”

• Ukraine’s air force shot down two out of three Russia-launched Shahed drones on Sunday night, according to Ukrainian military officials. However, no further details were provided by the general staff.

• Russian attacks resulted in the deaths of at least three people in various regions of eastern Ukraine, local officials confirmed on Sunday. Additionally, two more individuals were killed in the Lviv region, which is far from the frontlines. In Kharkiv, a city frequently targeted by Russia’s attacks on infrastructure, a strike hit civilian targets in the evening, said the regional governor, Oleh Synehubov. Reports from regional news outlets indicated that bombs were dropped in different areas of the region, although no injuries were reported. Furthermore, local prosecutors revealed that heavy shelling on Sunday resulted in the death of a man in the town of Borova, located southeast of Kharkiv.

• Police in Ukraine’s Donetsk region reported that Russian shelling struck 14 towns and villages, causing two deaths in Krasnohorivka, which is west of the Russian-held regional center of Donetsk.

• Aside from the frontlines, Russian attacks targeted infrastructure in Lviv. The regional governor, Maksym Kozitskyi, confirmed that two bodies were found amidst the rubble after cruise missile strikes.

• According to the Ukrainian local regional military administration, Russian forces launched 39 attacks on the border territories and settlements of the Sumy region on Sunday. These attacks involved 157 recorded explosions from various types of ordnance, such as artillery shells, mortars, exploding drones, drone-dropped mines and grenades, and rockets fired from helicopters. Sumy has experienced relentless Russian attacks in recent weeks, leading to forced evacuations.

• In Russia’s Belgorod region, near the border, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, reported that a woman was killed during an attack on a border village. However, there has been no independent confirmation of the accounts of military action from either side.

• In his Easter message, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, expressed resilience and determination. He stated, “Our spirit does not give up. There is no night or day when Russian terror does not try to break our lives,” and shared his message on social media following Russian missile strikes.

• To mark two years since the liberation of Bucha from a month-long occupation by Russia at the start of the war, Zelenskiy visited the city alongside Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and several foreign ambassadors. Together, they laid a lamp at the town’s wall of remembrance, which lists the names of the 509 identified civilians killed during Bucha’s occupation.

• France has pledged to provide Ukraine with hundreds of old armored vehicles and new surface-to-air missiles. The French defense minister, Sebastien Lecornu, announced that President Emmanuel Macron had tasked him with preparing a new aid package that includes functional but outdated equipment, as well as new missiles.

• In Kyiv, protesters took to the streets to demand the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war from the Azov brigade. Relatives and friends of captured soldiers, some dressed in military attire, waved placards at passing traffic.

Share