A Russian missile strike killed 17 people at an outdoor market just hours after Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Kyiv and met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The secretary of state announced more than $1 billion in new US aid for Ukraine.
Like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, President Emmanuel Macron of France too has spoken to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine over the phone – days before travelling to New Delhi to attend the G20 summit, which has come under the long shadow of Russia’s military aggression against the East European nation.
Zelenskyy posted on a social media platform that he and Macron had a phone call on Sunday and discussed France’s military support for Ukraine. Macron also promised Zelenskyy that France would play an active role in promoting the peace formula proposed by Ukraine to end Russia’s war.
Macron will travel to New Delhi this week to attend the G20 summit, which will be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is the third G20 leader to dial Zelenskyy just before attending the summit of the premier forum for international economic cooperation. Trudeau and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently had phone calls with the president of Ukraine.
Apart from the heads of states and heads of governments of the 19 G20 nations and the European Union, India has also invited the leaders of nine other nations to the summit.
The Modi government, however, resisted pressure from the West and did not include the president of Ukraine in the list of “special invitees”, ostensibly to avoid annoying Russia, which shares a “special and privileged strategic partnership” with India.
Zelenskyy had addressed the G20 leaders through video-link during the intergovernmental forum’s 17th summit, which had been held at Bali in Indonesia in November of 2022. He had presented his peace formula during his address to the summit, which Russian President Vladimir Putin had not attended.
China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that international talks in Saudi Arabia at the weekend on finding a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis had helped “to consolidate international consensus”.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a phone conversation on Monday that China would uphold an independent and impartial position on Ukraine as it strives to find a political settlement to the issue.
Wang’s comments to Lavrov were announced in a Foreign Ministry statement on Monday that said China would be an “objective and rational voice” at any international multilateral forums and “actively promote peace talks”. The statement came after the ministry said earlier on Monday that international talks in Saudi Arabia at the weekend on finding a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis had helped “to consolidate international consensus”.
More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the Jeddah talks that ended on Sunday.
China sent its Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs and former ambassador to Russia, Li Hui, who in May toured six European capitals to try to find common ground for an eventual political settlement of the conflict, now in its 18th month.
Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine it launched in February 2022. It has offered its own peace plan, which received a lukewarm response in both Russia and Ukraine, while the United States and NATO were sceptical.
Pope Francis appeared to ask Russians to seek the truth about their country’s invasion of Ukraine in his Easter message to the world on Sunday and appealed for dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians following recent violence.
Francis, 86, presided at a solemn Easter day Mass in a sunny St. Peter’s Square after unseasonal cold forced him to skip an outdoor service on Friday – a precaution following his hospitalisation for bronchitis at the end of March.
A carpet of 38,000 flowers donated by the Netherlands bedecked the square for the most important and joyous date in the Church’s liturgical calendar – commemorating the day Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead. Honour units of Vatican Swiss Guards and Italian Carabinieri police – both in ceremonial dress – stood at attention.
But the traditional pomp and sacred singing then gave way to modern realities. Francis later went up to the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to deliver his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message and blessing, addressing a crowd the Vatican estimated at about 100,000.
There, from the same spot where he first appeared to the world as pope on the night of his election in 2013, he spoke of “the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped”, and prayed to God for peace.
“Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia,” he said.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, Francis has at least twice a week referred to Ukraine and its people as being “martyred” and has used words such as aggression and atrocities to describe Russia’s actions.
On Sunday he asked God to “comfort the wounded and all those who have lost loved ones because of the war, and grant that prisoners may return safe and sound to their families. Open the hearts of the entire international community to strive to end this war and all conflict and bloodshed in our world.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, denounced Russian attacks that coincided with the observance of Orthodox Palm Sunday, including an attack that killed a father and daughter in the city of Zaporizhzhia.
“This is how the terrorist state marks Palm Sunday,” Zelenskiy said. “This is how Russia places itself in even greater isolation from the world.”
The majority of Ukraine’s 41 million people are Orthodox Christians who celebrate Easter a week from now.
As he has done every Easter, Francis called for peace in the Middle East, his appeal made more urgent by recent violence in Jerusalem and cross-border exchanges of fire involving Israel, Lebanon and Syria.
“On this day, Lord, we entrust to you the city of Jerusalem, the first witness of your resurrection. I express deep worry over the attacks of these last few days that threaten the hoped-for climate of trust and reciprocal respect, needed to resume the dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, so that peace may reign in the Holy City and in the entire region,” he said.
Unlike fellow members of the Quad alliance — Japan, Australia and the United States — India has abstained in three UN votes condemning Moscow’s actions
India on Saturday signalled a subtle change in its stand on Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida in assessing “broader implications” of the conflict, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region — the scene of growing belligerence of China.
India has so far been dismissing any attempt to draw a parallel between Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and China’s belligerence in the Indo-Pacific region. It has also been rejecting the argument put forward by the United States that if Russia could get away with its aggression against Ukraine, it would encourage China to ratchet up its belligerence in the Indo-Pacific region. Modi on Saturday continued to avoid directly calling out Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering military operations in Ukraine. Kishida, however, condemned Putin for aggression against the East European nation. The two prime ministers together called for “immediate cessation of violence” in Ukraine, noting that dialogue and diplomacy was the only path for resolution of the conflict.
