French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “extremely concerned” over the fate of Ukraine’s city of Mariupol during a lengthy phone call Friday with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Earlier, US President Joe Biden spoke to China’s Xi Jinping in which Biden aimed to persuade Xi to join Western pressure on Russia, the White House said. The high-stakes calls took place as Russia expanded its offensive and the war entered its fourth week.
French President Macron has urged “a lifting of the siege and humanitarian access” to Mariupol, as well as the “immediate respect of a ceasefire” in Ukraine during a call with Russia’s President Putin, Macron’s office said. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday said conflicts between states were “in no-one’s interest”, adding Beijing and Washington should “shoulder” responsibility for world peace during a call with US President Joe Biden, Chinese state TV reported. Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova on Friday said 130 people had been rescued so far from the rubble of a theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol, after Ukraine said a powerful Russian air strike hit the building where hundreds of people had been sheltering from the war on Thursday. Russian missiles hit an aircraft maintenance plant Friday near the airport in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said the mayor. Russian bombardments have expanded in eastern Ukraine with deadly attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and shelling in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region. Kyiv city authorities on Friday said 222 people had been killed in the capital since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom has revoked the licence of Russia’s state-funded television channel RT, in the latest international repercussion for Moscow. The UNHCR said Friday that more than 3.25 million Ukrainians had fled across the border since the war began on February 24, with more than 2 million crossing the Polish border. The UN children’s agency says around half of those who have fled are children.Follow our live updates below. If updates do not appear, please refresh the page.
© Studio graphique France Médias Monde
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP and AP)
