Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi assured his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba that China “does not sell lethal weapons to conflict areas or parties to conflict,” meaning Russia, according to a press release issued by Chinese diplomacy on Sunday, February 18. The two men spoke on Saturday in Munich on the sidelines of the security conference. Follow our live stream.
The war in Ukraine is a “matter of life and death,” said Vladimir Putin. For the West, “this is an improvement in its tactical position. But for us it is our fate,” the Russian president said in an interview excerpt published on social networks on Sunday. He judges that it is “important” for Russians and foreigners alike “to understand our state of mind, to understand to what extent what is happening around Ukraine is sensitive and important for our country.”
Two deaths in Kramatorsk. A Russian attack on the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine hit houses and killed at least two people on Saturday. “Rescuers have recovered the body of a woman born in 1977 from the rubble” and that of a 23-year-old man, the regional governor said.
Moscow claims “total control” over Avdiïvka. The Ukrainian army announced its withdrawal from this city in the east of the country on Friday night after months of heavy fighting. The Russian Ministry of Defense, in turn, claimed “total control” over the industrial city. For his part, Vladimir Putin welcomed “an important victory.”
Joe Biden calms down Volodymyr Zelenskyy on American aid. The American president expressed to his Ukrainian counterpart on Saturday his “confidence” in the continuation of American military aid, which is currently blocked in Congress. Without that aid resumed, Joe Biden expressed fears that another Ukrainian city would fall into the hands of Russian forces.