Putin beordrar styrkor att gå in i Ukraina - INVASION NU (2022-02-24)

Chinese leader Xi Jinping made his most direct criticism yet of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine on Friday, warning the Russian president not to resort to nuclear weapons and calling on visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to push for peace talks.

Xi’s warning comes just over a month after Putin threatened Ukraine with a nuclear attack, a sign of how far Ukrainian forces had rocked the Kremlin with their advances against invaders in the East.

The international community, said Xi, should “jointly oppose the use of, or threats to use, nuclear weapons,” according to a statement carried by Xinhua, China’s state news agency. The world should also “advocate that nuclear weapons cannot be used, a nuclear war cannot be waged, in order to prevent a nuclear crisis” in Europe or Asia, Xi added.

Chinese president Xi Jinping personally warned Vladimir Putin against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine in private while publicly offering glimpses of support to Russia, according to officials inside and outside China.

The warning was delivered during a trip by Xi to Russia in March, his first state visit in almost four years. Since then, Chinese officials have privately taken credit for stopping Russia from issuing nuclear threats.

For Putin, the Chinese leader’s visit was a setback as it failed to produce any meaningful wins. Most prominently, Beijing has still not given approval for the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline that would give Moscow an outlet for gas that previously flowed to Europe.

Generalstaben för Ukrainas väpnade styrkor säger att Ukraina slog till mot ett oljeraffinaderi i Ryssland förra veckan. Enligt uttalandet slog Ukraina den 5 juni till mot oljeraffinaderiet Novoshahtinsk i Rostov-na-Donu-regionen.
- Enligt underrättelserapporter förlorade angriparna som ett resultat av attacken 1,5 miljoner ton olja och raffinaderiprodukter, till ett värde av cirka 540 miljoner dollar (mer än 500 miljoner euro), sade Ukrainas generalstab. Enligt uttalandet komplicerar attacker mot oljeraffinaderier "avsevärt fiendestyrkornas förmåga att utföra sina operationer".