Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy says China’s interest in war ‘not bad’

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says Beijing does not have credibility to propose a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Indicating that China is not impartial, Stoltenberg pointed out that it had signed an agreement with Russia only days before the invasion of Ukraine a year ago.

“China doesn’t have much credibility because they have not been able to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine,” he said.

Canada is imposing new Russia-related sanctions and sending four more Leopard 2 Tanks to Ukraine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said, marking the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The new sanctions would target 129 individuals and 63 entities including Russian deputy prime ministers and other officials, Trudeau told reporters in Toronto.

The World Bank has announced an additional $2.5bn in financing for Ukraine, aimed at supporting essential services and core government functions.

The development lender has mobilised more than $20.6bn in emergency financing for Ukraine to date.

“One year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the world continues to witness the horrific destruction inflicted on the country and its people,” said World Bank President David Malpass in a statement.

>European Union countries have been unable for a third day running to agree on new sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine a year ago, with Poland rejecting Italy’s demand for laxer new curbs on rubber imports, according to diplomats quoted by the Reuters news agency.

Poland said the proposed restrictions on EU imports of Russia rubber included such a big quota of imports exempted and such long transition periods that they would have no effect in practice.

Other EU countries were baffled that Warsaw – a leading Russia hawk in the bloc – was risking having no new sanctions announced on the anniversary of Russia’s attack against Ukraine over just one element of a broader package.

Zelenskyy says he plans to meet China’s president but did not say when such a meeting might take place.

“I plan to meet Xi Jinping and believe this will be beneficial for our countries and for security in the world,” he said at a news conference in Kyiv on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy had earlier reiterated that he would not hold talks with Putin.

Zelenskyy has urged the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, to increase the speed of weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president said at a news conference on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion that his main tasks include calling for more arms from Kyiv’s allies, including long-range weapons, tanks and aircraft.

The White House believes Moscow might provide Iran with fighter jets and other military equipment in exchange for its expanded support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to White House national security spokesperson John Kirby.

Kirby told reporters the US has information that Iran shipped artillery and tank rounds to Russia in November and Russia was offering “unprecedented defence cooperation” in return, including on missiles, electronics and fighter jets.

He said Iran was also seeking to buy attack helicopters, radar systems and combat trainer aircraft.

The Group of Seven (G7) is taking action against third-country actors “materially supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine”, the bloc says in a statement, reaffirming its support for Ukraine.

“We call on third-countries or other international actors who seek to evade or undermine our measures to cease providing material support to Russia’s war, or face severe costs,” said the group consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom and United States.

“To deter this activity around the world, we are taking actions against third-country actors materially supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine,” it said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he wants countries from Latin America and Africa, as well as China and India, to join a peace formula proposed by Kyiv to end the war with Russia.

At a news conference in Kyiv marking the first anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, Zelenskyy called for a summit with Latin American leaders and said Kyiv should take steps to build relations with African countries.

Ukraine’s president has said China’s interest in the war is “not bad” after Beijing called for a comprehensive ceasefire as part of a 12-point plan for dealing with the conflict.

“China has shown its thoughts. I believe that the fact that China started talking about Ukraine is not bad,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a news conference on the anniversary of the Russian invasion.

“But the question is what follows the words. The question is in the steps and where they will lead to.”

Zelenskyy added there were points in the Chinese proposals that he agreed with “and there are those that we don’t”.

“But it’s something,” he said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says many countries are supporting Ukraine despite feeling the economic “pain” of the war because to do otherwise would be to “abandon the UN Charter itself”.

He noted, for example, that Europe has taken “extraordinary steps” to end its dependence on Russian energy.

“Nations around the world continue to stand with Ukraine because we all recognise that if we abandon Ukraine, we abandon the UN Charter itself and the principles and rules that make all countries safer and more secure,” Blinken told the UN Security Council.

Dozens of people have been detained by police in Russia after taking action to commemorate the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, protest monitoring group OVD-info says.

In Moscow, at least three people laying flowers on a monument to prominent Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka were quickly detained by police officers, OVD-Info said.

At least 15 people were detained laying flowers at a monument to Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko in St Petersburg, it added.

Russians all across the country actively protested against the war in Ukraine during the first week of the invasion. Large rallies quickly fizzled after thousands were detained, but single-person protests, and detentions, have persisted throughout the year.

The UN Security Council should not be fooled by calls for a temporary or unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine and should not fall into the “false equivalency” of calling on both sides to stop fighting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Russia will use any pause in fighting to consolidate control of territory and replenish its forces, Blinken said after China called for a ceasefire as part of a position paper on the war.

“No member of this council should call for peace while supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine and on the UN Charter,” Blinken said.

Ukraine’s foreign minister has told the UN Security Council that any new peace proposals for an end to the war should be aligned with the demands made in a recent UN General Assembly resolution.

“Ukraine will resist as it has done so far, and Ukraine will win. Putin is going to lose much sooner than he thinks,” Dmytro Kuleba told the 15-member Security Council.

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution late on Thursday calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and a halt to fighting in the country.

Germany will supply Ukraine with another four Leopard 2A6 battle tanks, the defence ministry in Berlin says.

“Germany is thus increasing the number of tanks it is handing over from 14 to 18,” the ministry said.

Olga Krasnyak, an associate professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, says there is strong support among Russians for what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“Even some people who had certain reasons not to support this conflict, because Ukraine is our brotherly nation, [now] understand that it is neccesary,” Krasnyak told Al Jazeera from the Russian capital.

“We see that Western countries have turned their back on Russia and started to oppose Russia,” she added.

“It is like a beseiged state here in Russia, so in this situation we support the President [Vladimir Putin].

“This is not a conflict with Ukraine or Ukrainian people. It is a conflict with Western countries that is now becoming deeper and larger because it is about a new world order and a new hierarchy of countries.”

The United States will impose a 200 percent tariff on aluminium and derivatives produced in Russia effective from March 10, the White House has said.

Washington will also apply a 200 percent tariff on aluminium imports with any amount of primary aluminium smelted or cast in Russia, starting on April 10, it added.

Russian aluminium is produced by Rusal, which accounts for about 6 percent of global supplies. Supplies to the US accounted for 7 percent of Rusal’s revenue in the first half of 2022.

Russian aluminium accounts for only a small portion of total US supplies.

Al Jazeera has spoken to a number of former residents of Ukraine’s southern city of Mariupol, where Russia is alleged to have carried out atrocities.

Read their stories here.

Canada has said it will provide Ukraine with more than $32m in support to further strengthen its security.

The aid includes $7.5m for demining efforts and more than $12m to counter chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, Canada’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.

Russian economist Nick Korzhenevsky, from statistical service SberIndex, said Russian expenditures have “ballooned” since the start of war.

“The direct expenditure that Russia now commits to the war is around $100bn a year,” he told Al Jazeera, speaking from Warsaw. “That’s what they have to spend. And then there’s also economic losses, I would say that’s another $20-30bn a year.”

“The official expenditure forecast for this year is $400bn. The government receipts will be around $350bn. But what’s most interesting is that just before the war started the plans for expenditures for this year were officially only $300bn.”

Korzhenevsky said that the effects of sanctions on Russia will be felt in the medium and long term.

“Last year was better than many expected in a sense because the government expenditure, which is directly part of the GDP, was so high,” he said. “Oil and gas sanctions only really kicked in the fourth quarter, so for nine months out of last year the revenues were OK and the industry was doing all right.”