US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that China is “very closely” following the reaction of Washington and the international community to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Speaking at the end of President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, Blinken said that if Russia were allowed to attack Ukraine with impunity, it would “open a Pandora’s box” for potential aggressors and lead to “a world of conflict”.

Synthesis of the last 24 hours of the war

• Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia was “a trip of friendship, cooperation and peace,” a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said. The Chinese president concluded his three-day visit to Moscow by reiterating that Beijing maintains neutrality in the conflict in Ukraine.

• Vladimir Putin has no plans for peace in Ukraine, so the West must prepare to provide assistance to Kyiv for a long time, the NATO Secretary General warned in an interview with The Guardian. Fierce fighting around Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine has shown that Russia is ready to “throw thousands and thousands of new troops into battle, causing many casualties for minimal gain,” the NATO chief said.

• At least eight people were killed in a day as a result of a drone attack on Ryshchiv in the Kyiv region, regional police chief Andrii Nebytov said. The targets of the attack were a residential building and a school. The state television and radio company of Ukraine reported that one of the dead was “an ambulance driver who came for a call for help.”

• Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Ryabkov said that the risk of a nuclear conflict is the highest in recent decades. He said Russia was committed to keeping the world “safe and free” from the threat of nuclear war, adding that Moscow was now “in a state of open conflict” with Washington. .

• According to a new study by the World Bank, rebuilding Ukraine’s economy will cost $411 billion, which is 2.6 times the projected gross domestic product of Ukraine in 2022.

• The Swedish Parliament officially approved the bill on the country’s accession to NATO. Sweden and its neighbor Finland applied to join NATO in May 2022, abandoning decades of non-alignment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The process was suspended by Turkey, which, together with Hungary, has not yet ratified the accession of the two states.

• The Prince of Wales arrived in Warsaw as part of a surprise two-day trip to Poland to thank the British and Polish forces for their efforts to support Ukraine, and to learn more about how the country is caring for Ukrainian refugees.

The latest on the war in Ukraine, day 393, LIVETEXT:

06:03 Delays in payments to the Russian military began to appear in an increasing number of regions of the Russian Federation, writes Ukrinform. It would be about more than 52 regions where salaries, allowances and social benefits are not paid. According to the publication, mass delays in payments began in 2023, last year these cases appeared only individually.

01:23Zelenskyi: It is very important that Kharkiv remains strong. He gives strength to our entire east

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, who visited the frontline and cheered on the soldiers on Wednesday, admitted to his compatriots – in an evening message that appeared to have been recorded in a basement – that he was troubled by what he saw, but remains optimistic that victory is possible, stressing that Kharkiv is important to “remain strong” in order to liberate the entire occupied territory, including Crimea.

00:42China’s top diplomat praised Xi’s visit to Russia, rejecting “unilateralism and hegemony”

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Wednesday that his country’s relationship with Russia could be “even more valuable in the face of galloping unilateralism and hegemony,” praising President Xi Jinping’s trip to Moscow, according to CNN.

Qin described Sino-Russian relations as representing “the right direction of historical development” and having “global significance beyond both sides,” according to a statement released after Xi’s state visit.

00:05Blinken urges US to return to UNESCO to confront China

US Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken called on Wednesday for the United States to return to UNESCO to counter China’s influence, AFP reported.

23:25How high is the risk of nuclear war?

The risk of a nuclear conflict has now reached its highest level in decades, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday, according to the state news agency TASS.