The Worldwide Response to Russia's War On Ukraine

[TopHatter]

Kremlin: South Korean arms for Ukraine would signify involvement in conflict
(Reuters) - Any decision by South Korea to supply arms to Ukraine would make Seoul a participant in the conflict, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after President Yoon Suk Yeol opened the door to such deliveries.

South Korea has denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine and supplied economic and humanitarian aid to Kyiv, but unlike the United States and European allies has so far stopped short of sending weapons.

In a Reuters interview on Tuesday ahead of a visit to Washington next week, Yoon said Seoul would consider arming Kyiv in the event of a major new attack against Ukrainian civilians.

"Unfortunately, Seoul has taken a rather unfriendly position in this whole story," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a briefing.

"They will try to draw more and more countries directly into this conflict. But of course, the start of arms deliveries will obliquely mean a certain stage of involvement in this conflict."

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin who frequently makes hawkish comments on Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, suggested Moscow could respond by supplying advanced weaponry to North Korea.

"I wonder what the inhabitants of this country [South Korea] will say when they see the latest designs of Russian weapons in the hands of their closest neighbours - our partners from the DPRK [North Korea]?" Medvedev said in a post on Telegram.
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Dumbass Dimitri might want to think about getting the latest designs of Russian weapons in the hands of Russians for a start. Then maybe worry about getting them in the hands of the DPRK.

I wonder if Vladimir has detailed a speechwriter specifically for Medvedev's chest-pounding remarks...

[Albany Rifles]

Having Medvedev on your team must be like taking a bassoon to a dear hunt.

(That's a paraphrasing of something the worst general I ever worked for said during Desert Storm...GEN H. Norman Schwartzkopf).

[TopHatter]

Having Medvedev on your team must be like taking a bassoon to a dear hunt.

(That's a paraphrasing of something the worst general I ever worked for said during Desert Storm...GEN H. Norman Schwartzkopf).

I've heard that from a few people about Stormin' Norman.

[Albany Rifles]

I've heard that from a few people about Stormin' Norman.

Fun fact: I don't know if I have told you but I got my ass chewed by Schwartzkopf as a junior Captain in 1985 only in the unit for 2 weeks and by Powell as a senior Captain with about 6 weeks left on the installation.

I have had a most intriguing career!

[TopHatter]

Fun fact: I don't know if I have told you but I got my ass chewed by Schwartzkopf as a junior Captain in 1985 only in the unit for 2 weeks and by Powell as a senior Captain with about 6 weeks left on the installation.

I have had a most intriguing career!

That's quite a list!

[TopHatter]

Danes, Dutch to donate Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark and the Netherlands announced Thursday that they plan to provide Ukraine with at least 14 refurbished German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks, to be supplied from early 2024.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called it “a significant donation” which came on top of a contribution by Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, announced in February, to supply at least 100 Leopard 1 A5 tanks.

In a joint statement, the Danish and Dutch defense ministers said the estimated cost of 165 million euros "to jointly acquire, refurbish and donate" will be equally divided between the two NATO members.

“In this way, we will jointly take part in the ‘Leopard 2 coalition’, supported by many partners and allies," they said.

In January, Germany agreed to send 14 newer Leopard 2 A6 tanks from its military’s current stocks.

Acting Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen stressed that the tanks were not Danish but are “bought in collaboration with the Netherlands.”

Denmark currently has Leopard 2 A7 tanks which are a “different and newer model than the one we are donating now,” Lund Poulsen added.

The older Leopard 1, manufactured between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s, was the first battle tank built for West Germany’s Bundeswehr.
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[TopHatter]

Canada Confiscated Russia's Monster Plane and Gave It to Ukraine

T

For over a year, a massive An-124 Ruslan cargo plane has been sitting on the tarmac of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. The jet, with serial numbers RA-82078, had landed there on February 27, 2022 carrying a cargo of Covid-19 rapid tests—just four days after Russia launched its massive invasion of Ukraine. That same day, Canada’s transport minister closed Canadian airspace to all Russian-operated aircraft, keeping the An-124 grounded.

Following an April 11, 2023 meeting between Ukrainian and Canadian prime ministers Denys Shmyhal and Justin Trudeau, Ottawa now plans to confiscate the plane and give it to Ukraine. This decision was made on the basis of a legal ruling by a Ukraine court that Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency had illegally approved air-worthiness certification for all twelve of Volga Dnepr’s An-124s.

Antonov Airlines, a branch of the Ukrainian state-owned company which designed the An-124, will undoubtedly receive the craft. And to add insult to injury, Russia is still on the hook for over $330,000 USD equivalent in parking fees for the over 400 days spent in impoundment.

Aptly codenamed Condor by NATO, the 200-ton jet—capable of hefting 150 tons of cargo and roughly 50 tons of fuel—is the reigning T-Rex of heavy lift aviation. It’s the largest operational aircraft in the world, ever since Ukraine’s even larger An-225 cargo jet was destroyed in the battle of Hostomel airport last year. A uniquely upgraded An-124-100-150M was also damaged in the Hostomel fight.

Since the early 1990s, these big haulers have been chartered by both civilian and military clients for rapid delivery of heavy, large-volume cargos including railway cars, industrial turbines, helicopters, tanks and, once, even a whale.

Antonov Airlines retains a fleet of five An-124-100s which were re-homebased at Halle airport in Leipzig, Germany after the Russian invasion.

Upon resuming operations last year, Antonov Airlines anticipated that the aircraft would fly up to 385 more missions, involving 1,270 landings. In August, the An-124s were all renamed after Ukrainian cities that experienced heavy fighting in the war, including Bucha, Irpin, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Ohktyrka, Kherson and Mariupol.

Three more Volga-Dnepr An-124s (serial numbers RA-82043, 82045 and 82046) are also under impoundment, gathering dust at Leipzig.

Germany’s plans for these impounded aircraft (one of which lacks engines) remain unclear. Besides Antonov and Volga-Dnepr, the craft type is operated by Russia’s military, and one is flown by UAE-based Maximus Airlines.

Flight of the Condor
Ukraine used to be the sole proprietor of the world’s largest aircraft—the 314-ton An-225 Mriya (“Dream”) transport plane, operated by its domestic Antonov Airlines from Hostomel Airport near Kyiv. This was effectively an enlarged An-124 with a different tail, specially built to carry the Soviet Buran space shuttle.

When Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on February 23, Russian paratroopers seized Hostomel in a helicopter landing operation, planning to use it as a launch pad to capture the Ukrainian capital. To their surprise, the Ukrainians counterattacked quickly and vigorously with air and ground forces, preventing additional troops from landing in the area and causing Putin’s attempted snatch-and-grab of Kyiv to collapse in shambles.

When Ukrainian troops recaptured Hostomel for good on April 2, they found Mriya in its burn-out hangar, its front section smashed by shelling.

The loss of the likely irrecoverable Mriya left it’s smaller—but still ginormous—sister, the Antonov An-124 Ruslan, with the title of largest in the world.

The An-124 began development in the 1970s as “Project 400”, a Soviet counterpart to the huge American C-5 Galaxy heavy-haul cargo jet. The An-124 closely resembled the C-5 Galaxy, including its folding nose cone used to facilitate loading and offloading.

However, the Soviets brought technical flourishes to the concept, including a computerized fly-by-wire flight controls system and both ground-scanning navigation and weather radars. The primarily aluminum aircraft also incorporated 5% lightweight composite materials, as well as ultra-hard (and ultra-expensive) titanium flooring for the cargo deck.

A total of 24 massive wheels on 10 gear-fairings supported the aircraft, each with built in auxiliary power units. Those wheels can be deflated to crouch the jet down for ease of unloading. Propulsion was provided by four Lotarev D-18T turbofan engines—the first fuel-efficient high-bypass engines developed by the Soviet Union—which could also reverse thrust to assist with landing.

Ultimately, compared to the C-5, the An-124 boasted 20% more internal volume and 17% higher maximum cargo weight. The massive aircraft could carry up to three main battle tanks, five BMP infantry fighting vehicles, or an entire mini submarine. Its cargo bay even included a 30-ton capacity crane to facilitate loading and unloading.

Unlike the C-5, however, the Ruslan lacked inflight-refueling capability, and its main hold wasn’t fully pressurized to support passengers or paratroopers—though it does have an upper passenger deck with seating for 88 personnel.

Despite making its first flight in December of 1982, followed by an unveiling at the Paris Airshow in 1985, the An-124 wasn’t fully operationally reliable until 1991. Altogether, 53 An-124s were built (including the prototype), with parts for two more left unassembled. Antonov built eighteen of these in Ukraine, while the remainder were built by the Ulyanovsk factory in Russia.

Of these aircraft, 22 were built or converted into the civilian An-124-100 aircraft, stripped of military systems and fit with improved D-18T series 3 engines with much longer service lives (18,000 hours). Four An-124s were lost in deadly accidents that claimed 97 lives between them, with a fifth An-124 heavily damaged in a belly landing after losing engine power.

Even before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, however, Antonov began arranging international cargo flights in partnership with British company Air Foyle, which included delivering U.S. Patriot missiles during the Persian Gulf War.

This began a trend of the An-124 fleet seemingly ending up providing more transportation services to NATO-member militaries than Russia’s armed forces, particularly during ‘War on Terror’-era operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan. These services included delivering Canadian Leopard 2 tanks for combat in that latter period. The partnership with Air Foyle ended in 2005, and Antonov instead leased twelve An-124s to a consortium with Russia called Volga-Dnepr, while also operating its own Antonov Airlines.

The -100s were gradually modernized, with new avionics allowing downsizing of flight crew from six to four in the -100M submodel. Then, in 2005, Antonov also refit a unique An-124-100-150M aircraft with a D-18T Series 4 engine, boasting 10% increased thrust, in turn and increasing max carrying capacity and range to 150 tons and 9,631 miles, respectively.

An-124 cargo missions included transporting the 4^th-century Axium obelisk—weighing 160 tons—from Rome back to Ethiopia, the dismantled components of a U.S. Navy EP-3E spy plane that forced landed in China’s Hainan island, a Falcon Heavy rocket, a massive Putzmeister concrete pump airlifted from Germany to Japan to help cool of the melt-down Fukushima reactor, and huge quantities of masks and tests during the peak COVID-19 era.

The An-124 also established world records for the heaviest-ever lift—carrying a 187.6-ton German generator to Armenia—and the longest unrefueled flight ever, traversing over 12,520 miles in 25 hours and 30 minutes.

A Condor also starred in the James Bond film Die Another Day
The Volga-Dnepr partnership fell apart after Russia’s initial invasions of Ukraine in 2014. However, the airline was able to continue operations in Western countries until sanctions in 2022 grounded 4 of its An-124s.

According to an assessor, Russia’s assault on Hostomel caused damages that would require $3 billion and five years to repair. Besides the desolation of the Mriya, it also resulted in the destruction of an An-74 and Ant-26-100 aircraft in Antonov’s fleet, and damaged the unique An-124-100-150M.

The Mriya is unlikely to be restorable—though, given adequate resources, Antonov could attempt to assemble a second never-completed An-225 airframe. That option, however, is estimated to cost roughly $500 million.

Russian military An-124s have been active in the war in Ukraine, used to transport Tochka-U and Iskander ballistic missiles for attacks. Ukraine’s now Leipzig-based An-124s also are active. While reportedly prioritizing missions transporting humanitarian and military aid for the Ukrainian government and NATO, they also still fly commercial flights, such as transporting a gas turbine from the UAE to the United Kingdom.
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[kato]

Three more Volga-Dnepr An-124s (serial numbers RA-82043, 82045 and 82046) are also under impoundment, gathering dust at Leipzig.

Germany’s plans for these impounded aircraft (one of which lacks engines) remain unclear. Besides Antonov and Volga-Dnepr, the craft type is operated by Russia’s military, and one is flown by UAE-based Maximus Airlines.

The Volga-Dnepr An-124 in Leipzig have not been impounded. They are just unable to leave the airport due to sanctions against Russian companies forbidding them from flying in EU airspace. The aircraft were in Leipzig for maintenance (hence the missing engines on one), Volga-Dnepr runs a base there for that.

Volga-Dnepr, according to the airport, regularly pays the required parking fees for the aircraft btw, by now rumoured to exceed 1 million Euro total since the start of the war.

Since the (freight-focused) airport currently has a lower aircraft turnover partially due to this grounding - and in general needs money - they just last month massively raised fees on night-time landings for Il-76 and An-124 btw (also on B737, for Airbus aircraft fees were lowered). This change primarily affects Antonov Airlines, who moved their entire operations including logistics and maintenance hub from Hostomel Airport in Kyev to Leipzig.

Ottawa now plans to confiscate the plane and give it to Ukraine. This decision was made on the basis of a legal ruling by a Ukraine court that Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency had illegally approved air-worthiness certification for all twelve of Volga Dnepr’s An-124s.

It's a pretty dubious legal ruling with regard to confiscation btw. Hence why Germany also isn't doing anything. The Ukrainian court basically ordered confiscation of the aircraft as "evidence" for the case, they didn't decide on the case itself.

[Amled]

https://www.rferl.org/a/china-diplom.../32377131.html

Here’s a high ranking Chinese diplomat, dangling a basket of apples beneath the snout of a resurgent Russia!
Essentially giving them carte blanche to go harvesting their breakaway former republics!...
(...of course they would first have to clear that minor case of Ukraine off the table!!!)
As in the optics of this diplomat, they have no legitimate claim to “sovereignty”!
That most of the rest of the nations of the world would dispute the claim, is apparently irrelevant!
The official PRC; given the way they; at least in words, hold the principle of “sovereignty” sacrosanct, has yet to censure their errant diplomat!

..During an interview with the French television station LCI, ambassador Lu Shaye suggested countries that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union "don't have effective status under international law because there is not an international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations."

George Orwell did not live in vain; this is a perfect example of “doublespeak”!

[TopHatter]

https://www.rferl.org/a/china-diplom.../32377131.html

Here’s a high ranking Chinese diplomat, dangling a basket of apples beneath the snout of a resurgent Russia!
Essentially giving them carte blanche to go harvesting their breakaway former republics!...
(...of course they would first have to clear that minor case of Ukraine off the table!!!)
As in the optics of this diplomat, they have no legitimate claim to “sovereignty”!
That most of the rest of the nations of the world would dispute the claim, is apparently irrelevant!
The official PRC; given the way they; at least in words, hold the principle of “sovereignty” sacrosanct, has yet to censure their errant diplomat!


George Orwell did not live in vain; this is a perfect example of “doublespeak”!

lol those crazy wolf warriors, always making friends and influencing people...

[Monash]

https://www.rferl.org/a/china-diplom.../32377131.html

Here’s a high ranking Chinese diplomat, dangling a basket of apples beneath the snout of a resurgent Russia!
Essentially giving them carte blanche to go harvesting their breakaway former republics!...
(...of course they would first have to clear that minor case of Ukraine off the table!!!)
As in the optics of this diplomat, they have no legitimate claim to “sovereignty”!
That most of the rest of the nations of the world would dispute the claim, is apparently irrelevant!
The official PRC; given the way they; at least in words, hold the principle of “sovereignty” sacrosanct, has yet to censure their errant diplomat!


George Orwell did not live in vain; this is a perfect example of “doublespeak”!

What the French should have said was 'Really? Perhaps Tibetans and Taiwanese would disagree with that statement!

[Bigfella]

Beijing seems to be walking this back. Hard to know if this is a bloke off on a frolic or Beijing sending different messages to different people. I imagine China has been more frank wiht Russia in provate than anything we will be seeing in public.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/euro...24-p5d2xz.html

[Monash]

Beijing seems to be walking this back. Hard to know if this is a bloke off on a frolic or Beijing sending different messages to different people. I imagine China has been more frank wiht Russia in provate than anything we will be seeing in public.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/euro...24-p5d2xz.html

If I had to guess? It was a combo of distance/timing leading to someone 'jumping' the starters gun and an eager acolyte wanting to show their devotion to the State.

[TopHatter]

Belarusians wary of being drawn into war with Ukraine

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — For Ruslan, an engineer in the Belarus capital of Minsk, Russia’s war in neighboring Ukraine suddenly seemed closer than ever when a conscription office recently sent him a summons for military training.

It’s part of an effort that will see thousands of men in Belarus attend drills amid fears that the staunch Moscow ally could be drawn into the fighting.

“They are telling us that Belarus won’t enter the war against Ukraine, but I hear Russian warplanes roar over my house heading to the Machulishchi air base outside Minsk,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He asked not to be fully identified out of concern for his personal safety.

“Russian troops are already in Belarus, and I see the country gradually being turned into a military barracks,” he said. “Everybody fears that they won’t allow Belarusians to keep watching the war from a distance for too long.”

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has welcomed thousands of Russian troops to his country, allowed the Kremlin to use it to launch the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and offered to station some of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons there. But he has avoided having Belarus take part directly in the fighting — for now.

Analysts and political opponents say that further involvement over Ukraine could rekindle public anger against him and erode his iron-fisted grip on power that has lasted for nearly 29 years.

Lukashenko, who meets regularly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has relied on the Kremlin’s political and economic support to survive months of protests, mass arrests and Western sanctions following an election in 2020 that kept him in power and was widely seen at home and abroad as rigged.

Russia’s invasion is deeply unpopular in Belarus, which shares a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) border with Ukraine and has many citizens with family or personal ties there.

“The Belarusians don’t see any sense in this war,” said Svyatlana, a 54-year-old manager in Luninets, near the border. She asked not to be identified by her full name for her own security.

A new Belarusian air defense unit was formed recently in the city, she said, and “war fears have increased” as troop numbers have grown.

Belarusian military analyst Aliaksandr Alesin said that if the country’s 45,000-member army is sent into Ukraine, there might be “mass refusals to follow orders.”

He said Lukashenko won’t do it “because he fears to stir up discontent among the military, who could turn their weapons in a different direction.”

While agreeing to station some of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons in his country, Lukashenko cast the move as protection against what he described as NATO’s aggressive plans and Western plots against his government.

“They don’t bomb countries with nuclear weapons,” Lukashenko said recently.

The construction of storage facilities for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus will be finished by July 1, Putin said. Russia already has modified Belarusian warplanes to carry nuclear weapons and given its ally Iskander short-range missiles that can be fitted with a nuclear warhead. It also has trained Belarusian crews to operate the planes and missiles armed with nuclear weapons.

During the Cold War, Belarus hosted about two-thirds of Moscow’s arsenal of nuclear-tipped intermediate range missiles, Alesin said, adding that dozens of Soviet-era storage sites can still be used for such weapons. Soviet nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were moved to Russia under a U.S.-brokered deal after the USSR’s collapse in 1991.

“Belarus was a Soviet nuclear fortress, and now Putin and Lukashenko have decided to not only restore but to strengthen it,” Alesin told AP. “From Belarus, Russian nuclear-tipped missiles could reach Ukraine, the entire territory of Poland, the Baltics and part of Germany, and this ‘Belarusian nuclear balcony’ will rattle Western politicians’ nerves for a long time to come.”

Opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who challenged Lukashenko in the 2020 election after her activist husband was jailed, told AP that hosting Russian nuclear weapons would turn the Belarusian people into hostages.

“The deployment of Russian nuclear weapons will make Belarus a target in case of an escalation and seriously jeopardize Belarusians’ lives,” said Tsikhanouskaya, who fled the country after the election and has become a fierce critic-in-exile of Lukashenko. “The two dictators have gone too far in their war games, and it will only lead to the toughening of Western sanctions.”

Those sanctions have crippled the Belarus economy, which shrank by a record 4.7% last year. Lukashenko hopes a 70% surge in trade with Russia last year will soften the impact and expects Belarus will profit from Moscow’s orders for electronics and other high-tech components for weapons systems.

Alesin said Moscow is providing Minsk “with cheap energy and loans and opens up its vast market in exchange for the opportunity to control the Belarusian military infrastructure.”

Some of the 300,000 Russian reservists called up last fall by Putin as part of his partial mobilization are being trained on firing ranges in Belarus. Lukashenko has said 500 officers are helping train the Russians, who are camped next to Belarusian barracks.

But this growing involvement in Belarus for the Kremlin war efforts is fomenting widespread resentment, said Belarusian political analyst Valery Karbalevich.

“A broad guerrilla movement has evolved in Belarus with its members blowing up railway tracks and Russian warplanes and attacking Russian and Belarusian official websites,” Karbalevich said. “Belarus’ transformation into a Russian military hub and its gradual drawing into the war has caused public discontent, forcing Lukashenko to escalate repressions.”

BYPOL, an organization of former military and security officers who oppose Lukashenko, claimed responsibility for a February drone attack on a Russian A-50 early warning and control aircraft at the Machulishchi air base near Minsk. Authorities said they detained a suspect alleged to be behind the attack, along with 30 others who were charged with terrorism and could face capital punishment if convicted.

Raids across the country have resulted in 300 other arrests on suspicion of links to the guerrillas, according to the Viasna human rights center.

BYPOL leader Aliaksandr Azarau told AP that if Belarus enters the war in Ukraine, it would provide a boost for his group, which grew out of the 2020 election protests.

“If small Belarus starts getting coffins from Ukraine, it will inevitably stir up protests that the authorities barely managed to stifle with mass repressions,” he said. “Lukashenko reasonably worries that entering the war would lead to a sharp rise of the guerrilla movement.”

When Putin launched the invasion, Russian troops rolled into Ukraine from Belarus in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to capture Kyiv, only 90 kilometers (about 55 miles) to the south. Parts of western Ukraine, including railway hubs of Lviv and Lutsk that are key conduits for Western weapons, also could be vulnerable to a potential incursion from Belarus.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently visited border guards in the northwestern Volyn region, urging vigilance against a possible incursion from Belarus.

“We haven’t seen any preparations in Minsk, and Lukashenko so far has resisted being drawn into a war with Ukraine, but the situation may change as Belarus is getting increasingly militarized,” said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov. “Lukashenko is ready to give Putin whatever he wants — except the Belarusian soldiers. But we aren’t blind and Kyiv is seriously worried about a sharp increase in the Russian military presence in Belarus.”

Karbalevich, the Belarusian analyst, said that while Lukashenko probably will remain reluctant to enter the war, Moscow could dangle the threat of another incursion into Ukraine from Belarus to force Kyiv to keep a significant number of troops on the border.

“The poorly motivated and weak Belarusian military army wouldn’t make much of a change on the battlefield, but the Kremlin needs to keep showing Kyiv and the West that the Belarusian threat remains,” he said. “It’s more convenient for Putin to use Minsk as a military hub while maintaining the constant threat of Belarus entering the war to keep the pressure on Ukraine.”
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[TopHatter]

NATO: Ukraine allies sent 1,550 combat vehicles, 'vast' ammo

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — NATO allies and partner countries have delivered more than 98% of the combat vehicles promised to Ukraine during Russia's invasion and war, the military alliance’s chief said Thursday, giving Kyiv a bigger punch as contemplates launching a counteroffensive.

Along with more than 1,550 armored vehicles, 230 tanks and other equipment, Ukraine's allies have sent “vast amounts of ammunition” and also trained and equipped more than nine new Ukrainian brigades, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

More than 30,000 troops are estimated to make up the new brigades. Some NATO partner countries, such as Sweden and Australia, have also provided armored vehicles.

"This will put Ukraine in a strong position to continue to retake occupied territory,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.

His comments came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had a “long and meaningful” phone call in their first known contact since Russia's full-scale invasion more than a year ago.

Though Zelenskyy wsaid he was encouraged by Wednesday's call and Western officials welcomed Xi's move, the development didn’t appear to bring about any immediate shift in peace prospects.

Russia and Ukraine are far apart in their terms for peace, and Beijing — while looking to position itself as a global diplomatic power — has refused to criticize Moscow's invasion. The Chinese government sees Russia as a diplomatic ally in opposing U.S. influence in global affairs, and Xi visited Moscow last month.

Stoltenberg said the 31 NATO allies were committed to shoring up Ukraine's military, adding that taking back land occupied by the Kremlin's forces would give Kyiv a stronger negotiating position if peace talks occur.

Ukrainian officials said China's overture was encouraging. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Thursday described the call between Xi and Zelenskyy as “very productive.”

“I’m convinced it is a good beginning for our relations in the future,″ Shmyhal said after visiting Pope Francis at the Vatican.

But the Kremlin's response was lukewarm.

Asked if the call could help end the fighting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “We are ready to welcome anything that could lead to the termination of the conflict in Ukraine and the achievement of all the goals set by Russia.”

Peskov said the conversation between the Chinese and Ukrainian leaders was “the sovereign business of those countries and the issue of their bilateral dialogue.”

With battlefield positions in Ukraine largely static as a war of attrition took hold in recent months, Russian forces have kept up their bombardment of Ukrainian areas, often hitting apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure.

At least seven civilians were killed and 33 were injured between Wednesday and Thursday, Ukraine's presidential office said Thursday.

They included one person killed and 23 wounded, including a child, when four Kalibr cruise missiles hit the southern city of Mykolaiv, official said.

The governor of Mykolaiv province, Vitalii Kim, said 22 multi-story buildings, 12 private houses and other residential buildings were damaged in the attack.

Kalibr missiles are launched from ships or submarines, The ones that hit Mykolaiv were fired from somewhere in the Black Sea, according to Ukraine’s Operational Command South.
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