- Ukraine says it destroyed 10 Russia drones launched overnight.
- Ukraine’s president is co-hosting a summit in Albania with the stated goals of “peace, security, cooperation”.
- G20 finance ministers are meeting in Brazil on Wednesday with the Russia-Ukraine war expected to take centre stage.
- Yulia Navalnaya, wife of activist Alexey Navalny who died earlier this month, will address the European Parliament on Wednesday.
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Fishy business: After Russia invaded Ukraine, its seafood industry thrived
After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the West’s reaction was swift and decisive, with unanimous decisions by the EU and the US to support Ukraine and punish Russia with economic sanctions.
Two years on, the war continues while Russia’s economy remains resilient.
While parts of the Russian industry were sanctioned immediately, some important industries were not.
The Russian fishing industry was only partially blocked by Washington and marginally by the European bloc, which continues to import about $1bn worth of seafood from its aggressive neighbour.
Read the full article here.
Russian salmon are displayed at a fish store amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Nemuro on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, April 11, 2022 [Daniel Leussink/Reuters] -
China lauds relations with Russia, calls for strengthened Asia Pacific role
China has heralded historically strong relations with Russia as it called for the pair to coordinate on security, stability and development in the Asia Pacific region.
China and Russia should play a “better role as an anchor of stability in the changing circumstances of the century”, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said in a statement issued on Wednesday following a visit to Moscow by Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong.
Although wary of damaging ties with the West, Beijing has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and relations between the two BRICS members have remained warm amid the war.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, gestures while speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on March 20, 2023 [Sergei Karpukhin/Sputnik via AP] -
Russia jails Ukrainian man for attempting to buy secret missile parts
Russian news agencies are reporting that a court in southern Russia has jailed a Ukrainian man for more than 11 years after convicting him of espionage for trying to procure secret missile components for Ukraine.
The agencies cited Russia’s internal security and intelligence agency FSB as saying that the man, who it named as 57-year-old Sergei Krivitsky, was an agent for Ukrainian military intelligence. They did not say whether he pleaded guilty or not.
The FSB said Krivitsky was a resident of Melitopol, a Ukrainian city taken by Russian forces in early 2022.
In 2023, Russia opened 31 espionage cases and 98 treason cases, the highest number since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Cars drive past the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in central Moscow, Russia [Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters] -
‘EU should consider using profits from frozen Russian assets to buy supplies for Ukraine’
We can now bring you more from the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
She tells the European Parliament that it was “time to start a conversation about using the windfall profits of frozen Russian assets to jointly purchase military equipment for Ukraine”.
“There could be no stronger and no greater use for that money than to make Ukraine and all of Europe a safer place to live.”
Ursula von der Leyen gestures as she arrives at the European Parliament [Jean-Francois Badias/AP Photo] -
Europe will support Ukraine for as long as it takes: Von der Leyen
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is speaking at the European Parliament.
“Over the last two years, Europe has shown and proven that it will support Ukraine for as long as it takes,” she says. “The threat of war may not be imminent, but it is not impossible”.
In preparing for such an eventuality, it means “turbocharging our defence industrial capacity in the next five years”, she says.
Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/28/russia-ukraine-war-live-navalny-widow-address-eu-parliament
