Russian-Ukrainian war live. “powerful” explosions in occupied Melitopol. Von der Leyen and Macron in China | Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during a meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing, advocate for Europe to end the conflict in Ukraine.

French and European leaders will be welcomed by the Chinese president late in the evening at the Great Hall of the People, the heart of the capital’s power.

Western pressure is mounting on China to take a more active role in the peace process in Ukraine, although Beijing is officially neutral, Xi has never condemned the Russian invasion.

While he recently traveled to Moscow to reaffirm his alliance with Putin as an anti-Western front, Xi has not even spoken to Zelensky on the phone.

Macron said on Wednesday that Beijing had a “big role” to play in finding a way to peace in Ukraine, hailing China’s “willingness” to commit to resolving the conflict.

In Brussels last week, von der Leyen took a harder line, saying: “How China continues to cooperate with Putin’s war will be a decisive factor for EU-China relations.”

In a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Hall of the People on Thursday morning, Macron stressed the importance of dialogue between China and France “in these troubled times”.

“The ability to share a common analysis and build a common path is essential,” he said.

Macron plans to meet with Zhao Leji, head of China’s top legislature, before a one-on-one meeting with Xi in the afternoon.

The couple will make statements to the press, followed by a trilateral meeting with von der Leyen and, finally, a state dinner.

The exiled mayor of Melitopol in the Russian-occupied Zaporozhye region says that several explosions were heard during the night.

“Several powerful explosions were registered in the city a little while ago,” Ivan Fedorov wrote in Telegram. That’s as much as we know so far, but we’ll bring you more news as it breaks.

Welcome to our ongoing live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.

Today, French President Emmanuel Macron and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during a meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing, advocate for ending the conflict in Ukraine.

French and European leaders will be welcomed by the Chinese president late in the evening at the Great Hall of the People, the heart of the capital’s power.

And early this morning, explosions were heard in the city of Melitopol of Zaporizhzhia region occupied by Russia, Mayor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.

Here are other key recent developments:

• On Monday, Vladimir Zelensky and his wife, Olena Zelenska, were welcomed in Poland with military honors, tributes and words of praise. They were greeted in Warsaw by President Andrzej Duda, who presented Zelenski with Poland’s oldest and highest civilian award, the Order of the White Eagle.

• Poland will send 14 MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine. Duda said at a joint press conference with Zelensky. Zelensky thanked the leader, government and people of Poland for standing “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine and providing shelter to the Ukrainians who fled. Poland has led the way in mobilizing Western military and political support for Kiev since Russia’s full-fledged invasion began 13 months ago.

• French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that anyone who helps the “aggressor” Russia in the Ukrainian conflict will become an “accomplice”. The French leader arrived in Beijing on a three-day state visit during which he hopes to dissuade Xi Jinping from supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while boosting European trade ties with Beijing.

• A Ukrainian drone crashed near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the Russian RIA agency reports, citing a Russian officer. It comes as the head of the UN nuclear watchdog was expected in Russia for talks on nuclear power plant safety.

• The United States, Great Britain, Albania and Malta have withdrawn the Russian representative on children’s rights – who the International Criminal Court wants to arrest on war crimes charges because he spoke to members of the UN Security Council via video.

• Zelensky said that the Ukrainian troops faced a difficult situation in the eastern city of Bakhmut. but that Kiev would take “appropriate” decisions to protect them if they were threatened by Russian forces. During a press conference in Poland on Wednesday, Ukraine’s president said that Kiev troops in Bakhmut sometimes make small advances only to be pushed back by Russian forces, but they remain inside the city.

• Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally of Vladimir Putin, arrived in Moscow for a meeting with the Russian leader. This was reported by the Belarusian state news agency Belta. On Wednesday evening, Lukashenko and Putin will have a meeting, where the couple will “discuss a wide range of issues related to Belarusian-Russian relations,” the message states.

• The United States is working on a formal process to determine whether Russia’s detention of a Wall Street Journal reporter was a “wrongdoing.” State Secretary Antony Blinken said.

• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Vladimir Putin’s statement that Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. showed that the Russia-China joint statement was just “empty promises”. The head of NATO noted that Russia is increasingly dependent on China, partly as a result of international sanctions against Moscow due to the war in Ukraine.

• Any supply of lethal aid by China to Russia for the Ukraine war would be a “historic mistake with profound consequences”. Stoltenberg also said.

• 6 Leopard 2A4 tanks, which Spain promised to send to Ukraine, will leave the country in the second half of April. Defense Minister Margarita Robles told state TVE on Wednesday, delaying the estimated delivery date. The German-made main battle tanks have not been used since the 1990s and have been mothballed in storage, requiring retrofitting and combat readiness tests after initial doubts about whether they could see combat again.