By This was CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine on March 20, 2023. See here for the latest updates.
Japan’s prime minister is on his way to Ukraine for a surprise trip while Chinese President Xi Jinping is in the middle of a state visit to Russia.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Tuesday that Fumio Kishida is visiting Kyiv for summit talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — a move that had been anticipated to take place before Japan hosts leaders of the Group of Seven in May.
Kishida’s trip makes him the second Asian leader to visit Ukraine since Russia invaded, after Indonesian President Joko Widodo went there last June.
Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss the deepening of economic and political cooperation, as well as the war in Ukraine, during the Chinese leader’s three-day visit to Moscow.
Xi and Putin were holding discussions for hours on Monday during the first day of the Moscow trip.
Japan’s foreign ministry confirmed that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is visiting Ukraine.
“As the G-7 [chair], Prime Minister Kishida will directly convey our solidarity and unwavering support for Ukraine,” a statement from the ministry said.
Kishida will visit Poland on Wednesday after his trip and return to Japan on Thursday, the ministry said.
Japan’s prime minister left India after meeting his counterpart there, Narendra Modi. The two leaders discussed stronger ties between their countries — both of them democracies — in the face of rising assertiveness from China in the Indo-Pacific region.
Last month, Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan told CNBC he was optimistic Kishida would visit Ukraine before hosting the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima in May.
– Jihye Lee
The U.K. held a meeting with more than 40 nations to discuss ways to provide extra support for war crimes investigations in Ukraine, according to a British readout.
The meeting was hosted by U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab and the Netherlands Minister for Justice and Security Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius.
Ahead of the meeting, the U.K. proposed funding to offer mental health care for witnesses of war crimes, send U.K. experts to train International Criminal Court investigators and help those ICC workers gather evidence of potential crimes.
The meeting follows ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over potential crimes in Ukraine.
— Amanda Macias
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said he hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Mariupol showed him how his forces destroyed the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city.
“I hope he did get to see the damage and the destruction that his forces did to that city,” Kirby said at the White House press briefing. “I hope he got to see what his troops, his war and his military did to that city.”
Kirby said the surprise visit by Putin is another example of Russia’s failing war in Ukraine. Putin traveled to the port city in southern Ukraine by helicopter before he was seen driving and inspecting parts of the city and talking to local residents. On Saturday, he reportedly visited Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
“It’s clear he knows, he has to know, how badly he’s doing inside Ukraine,” Kirby said, noting more than half of the land taken by Russia at the beginning of the war has been reclaimed by Ukrainian forces.
— Emma Kinery
White House national security spokesman John Kirby called Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s relationship an alliance based on shared global interests as opposed to true friendship.
“It’s a marriage of convenience rather than of affection,” Kirby said of Putin and Xi.
Xi dined with Putin at the Kremlin on Monday as part of a three-day visit to Moscow. Beijing has yet to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but has not sent Russia military support, either.
Asked whether the two countries see one another on equal footing, Kirby said: “In terms of that relationship, they truly are their genuine partner.”
— Emma Kinery
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the European Union and United States for fresh arms packages, as the Ukrainian military tries to repel a fierce Russian onslaught in the eastern part of the country.
He said a 2 billion euro EU plan to bolster Ukraine’s ammunition stores will help with “both immediate supply and production of ammunition,” according to an NBC translation of his Telegram post.
Zelenskyy also noted that a $350 million U.S. aid package includes “everything that is really necessary to support our soldiers” in Ukraine.
— Jacob Pramuk
The Russian Embassy in the United States reiterated that Moscow does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court after the world court at The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.
“We took notice of the statements of representatives of the U.S. administration on the alleged justification of the decision of the International Criminal Court to issue warrants of the arrest for President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova,” the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement to CNBC.
“For the sake of its own geopolitical interests Washington supports the unprecedented legal bacchanalia unleashed by the ICC, knowing full well that Russia, like the United States, does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC,” the statement added.
The Russian Embassy accused the U.S. of hypocrisy for resisting ICC efforts to prosecute alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
Russia in 2000 signed the Rome Statute, which established the ICC and its jurisdiction. But it did not ratify the agreement to become a member. The U.S. also did not ratify the statute.
— Amanda Macias
The State Department declined to say whether it was sharing evidence of potential Russian war crimes with the International Criminal Court.
U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack told reporters at the State Department that the Biden administration was “looking for ways to support” Ukraine’s investigations.
Van Schaack said that Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin has primary jurisdiction over all of the war crimes and other atrocities being committed in his country. She added that sharing U.S. evidence “is still under consideration.”
Van Schaack previously told CNBC that Kostin has so far documented more than 70,000 Russian war crimes since Moscow’s conflict began a little over a year ago.
— Amanda Macias
The Wagner Group said that its forces control nearly 70% of Bakhmut and will continue to fight until all of the city is captured.
The Russian mercenary group also said that Ukrainian forces were preparing to launch a “large-scale offensive.”
“At the end of March-beginning of April the enemy plans to launch a large-scale offensive and deliver flank cut-off strikes in order to cut off Wagner PMC units from the main forces of the Russian Armed Forces,” Wagner said on its official Telegram channel, according to an NBC News translation.
In a separate letter published to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin warned that Ukraine’s counter-offensive could lead to “negative consequences” for Russia.
— Amanda Macias
Talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping were ongoing after four hours, Russian state media said, according to an NBC News translation.
The discussions are part of Xi’s three-day state visit to Russia. The leaders were expected to talk about strengthening economic and political ties, as Ukraine and its allies watch whether China will move to provide military support to Moscow.
— Jacob Pramuk
The European Union agreed to fast track a measure that will provide Ukraine with more artillery shells as Kyiv continues to repel Moscow’s invasion.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described the agreement, which will send Ukraine 1 million 155-mm artillery shells within the year, as a “historic decision.”
“We are taking a key step towards delivering on our promises to provide Ukraine with more artillery ammunition,” Borrell said in a tweet.
Borrell also said 18 countries will join the European Defense Agency, which will develop the infrastructure for allies to submit joint orders for ammunition.
— Amanda Macias
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken approved a new security package for Ukraine worth $350 million. The latest security package, the 34th drawdown authority, includes more ammunition for U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and howitzers.
The package also includes ammunition for Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, HARM missiles, anti-tank weapons, riverine boats and other equipment.
“Russia alone could end its war today. Until Russia does we will stand united with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Blinken said in a statement announcing the new package.
— Amanda Macias
Russia will take the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council next week as Moscow’s war in Ukraine drags on.
The scheduled leadership change comes as the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged crimes committed in Ukraine.
The ICC’s move is the first time the court has issued a warrant against a leader whose country is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
Switzerland takes on the presidency next month.
— Amanda Macias
Three ships carrying 107,400 metric tons of agricultural products left Ukraine’s ports of Yuzhny-Pivdennyi, and Chornomorsk.
Two ships are destined for China and are carrying corn and barley. One more ship is headed to Spain and is carrying corn.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal brokered in July among Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations, eased Russia’s naval blockade and saw three key Ukrainian ports reopen. The deal was extended for over the weekend. Ukraine and the UN pushed for a 120-day extension, but Russia agreed to only 60 days.
So far, more than 700 ships have sailed from Ukrainian ports.
Correction: This post has been updated to correct the extension terms of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
— Amanda Macias
Russian President Vladimir Putin has met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Moscow Monday with both leaders exchanging pleasantries ahead of talks on Ukraine and extending cooperation between the nations.
As the two leaders met for an informal meeting before talks begin behind closed doors, Putin called Xi his “dear friend” as he welcomed him to Russia. He also praised China’s growth under Xi’s leadership, saying Russia was “slightly envious” of China’s swift development, in comments reported by Reuters.
Putin said China had taken a “balanced approach” to the international situation and said the leaders would discuss recent suggestions by China to find a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.
For his part, President Xi responded that Putin was also his “dear friend” and said he was pleased to be in Moscow for talks.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia’s top investigative body said on Monday it had opened a criminal case against the International Criminal Court prosecutor and judges who issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.
The move was a symbolic gesture of defiance, three days after the ICC accused Putin and his children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova of the war crime of deporting children from Ukraine to Russia.
The state Investigative Committee said there were no grounds for criminal liability on Putin’s part, and heads of state enjoyed absolute immunity under a 1973 U.N. convention.
The ICC prosecutor’s actions showed signs of being crimes under Russian law, the committee said, including knowingly accusing an innocent person of a crime.
The prosecutor and judges were also suspected of “preparing an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection, in order to complicate international relations”.
The Kremlin has called the issuing of the warrant outrageous but legally void, as Russia is not a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC. On Monday it said the court’s move was a sign of the “clear hostility” that exists against Russia and against Putin personally.
The ICC officials targeted in the Russian investigation are prosecutor Karim Khan and judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez.
“The criminal prosecution is obviously illegal, since there are no grounds for criminal liability,” the Russian statement said. The ICC’s move obliges the court’s 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.
Putin is unlikely to take that risk and Russia does not extradite its citizens, but the rare move against a serving president was an important symbolic step to pin responsibility on him for the consequences of his invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine says more than 16,000 children have been illegally transferred to Russia or Russian-occupied territories since the war started nearly 13 months ago. Russia has publicly said it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia in what it presents as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and abandoned children in the conflict zone.
— Reuters
The United Nations has confirmed 8,317 civilian deaths and 13,892 injuries in Ukraine since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor a year ago.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher, because the armed conflict can delay fatality reports.
The international organization said most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as missiles and airstrikes.
— Amanda Macias
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for more artillery ammunition “as fast as possible” during a European Union meeting on foreign affairs.
“More artillery ammunition for Ukraine as fast as possible,” he said.
“I anticipate the swift adoption of big decisions which will bolster Ukraine’s capabilities on the battlefield,” Kuleba said without providing further details.
— Amanda Macias
Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a statement praising Sino-Russia relations, and both China and Russia’s roles in the international community, after landing in Moscow on Monday for the start of a three-day state visit to Russia.
“The results of the development of China-Russia relations have brought tangible benefits to the people of the two countries and made important contributions to the development and progress of the world,” Xi said in a statement as he arrived in Moscow.
“As major world powers and permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and Russia play an important role in international affairs. In the face of a turbulent and changing world,” Xi said in a statement published on the Beijing Daily website.
He added that China is ready to continue to work with Russia “to firmly uphold the global system with the United Nations at its core, the international order based on international law and the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.”
Xi said he looked forward to an “in-depth exchange of views” with Russian President Vladimir Putin on “bilateral relations and major international and regional issues of common concern” and to draw up “a blueprint for strategic collaboration and practical cooperation between China and Russia in the new era.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Photos show Ukraine’s military mobilizing for a springtime counter-offensive in the country’s east as Russia’s nearly 13-month assault drags on with no end in sight.
– Getty Images
Chinese President Xi Jinping has landed in Russia at the start of a three-day state visit, Russian state news agency Tass reported.
The Chinese leader’s plane landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport around 12:59 Moscow time, a TASS correspondent noted.
— Holly Ellyatt
President Vladimir Putin will provide Chinese President Xi Jinping with detailed “clarifications” on Russia’s point of view on the Ukraine conflict during Xi’s state visit to Russia that begins on Monday, the Kremlin said.
During a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two leaders would discuss themes in a peace plan for Ukraine proposed by Beijing last month.
“One way or another, the topics that figured in this plan will inevitably be touched upon during the exchange of views on Ukraine” between Putin and Xi, Peskov said.
“But here, of course, exhaustive clarifications will be given by President Putin, so that President Xi can get a first-hand view of the current moment from the Russian side.”
China’s 12-point paper, which called for dialogue between the two sides, contained no roadmap for how to end the war, now in its 13th month. Ukraine cautiously welcomed it but the United States was dismissive, given China’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion.
Xi was due to arrive in Moscow around 1030 London time and to hold one-to-one “informal” talks with Putin on Monday afternoon, followed by dinner. Formal talks are scheduled for Tuesday.
Asked if China could become an intermediary between Moscow and Washington, Peskov declined to answer directly.
“For the time being, we see a continuing line on preventing any slowdown in hostilities. Washington, the State Department and the U.S. National Security Council are talking about this openly and officially,” he said.
Moscow accuses the United States and other Western countries of pouring weapons into Ukraine in order to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia. Washington and its allies say they are arming Ukraine to help it defend against an unprovoked Russian invasion and imperial-style land grab.
“The United States is sticking to its position, which is aimed at further provoking the conflict, preventing any decrease in the intensity of hostilities and pumping weapons into Ukraine,” Peskov said.
— Reuters
Over the past three weeks, Russian forces have made what Britain’s Ministry of Defense called “creeping gains” around the Ukrainian-held Donbas town of Avdiivka, immediately north of Donetsk city.
“The Russian operation has largely been carried out by the 1st Army Corps of the Donetsk People’s Republic; local personnel who will know the terrain well. Avdiivka has been on the front line of the Donbas conflict since 2014; the city is now largely destroyed,” the ministry noted in an intelligence update on Twitter Monday.
“The sprawling Avdiivka Coke Plant complex is likely to be seen as particularly defendable key terrain as the battle progresses,” it added.
The ministry noted that, tactically, the situation is similar to that in the larger town of Bakhmut, farther north, where intense fighting has been raging for months.
“Ukrainian forces continue organised defence, but their supply lines to the west are increasingly threatened by the Russian envelopment operation,” the ministry said.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia’s much-anticipated spring offensive against Ukraine has likely reached its high-water mark, leaving Ukraine’s defenders “well positioned to regain the initiative and launch counteroffensives,” according to research released late Sunday.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in a new assessment that Russia’s 2023 attacks have yielded few gains and left Moscow planners desperate to reconstitute hard-hit military units.
The failures have come about despite the 300,000 soldiers mobilized by Russia late last year explicitly for the spring offensive.
“If 300,000 Russian soldiers have been unable to give Russia a decisive offensive edge in Ukraine it is highly unlikely that the commitment of additional forces in future mobilization waves will produce a dramatically different outcome this year,” the research said.
CNBC is unable to independently verify ISW’s assessment, though it aligns with others’ analysis including that of Ukrainian commanders. Russia’s Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
ISW is a research firm whose board members are mostly retired U.S. military personnel, diplomats and political leaders.
—Ted Kemp
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have praised each other’s leadership and their countries’ alliance as a three-day state visit by Xi to Moscow begins Monday.
Lauding Russia-China relations in an article released by several Russian and Chinese news agencies ahead of the visit, Xi said “both countries uphold an independent foreign policy and see our relationship as a high priority in our diplomacy.”
“Russia was the first country I visited after I was elected President 10 years ago. Over the past decade, I have made eight visits to Russia. I came each time with high expectations and returned with fruitful results, opening a new chapter for China-Russia relations together with President Putin,” Xi said.
Xi added that there was a “clear historical logic and strong internal driving force for the growth of China-Russia relations” that had come a long way in the last decade.
Meanwhile, Putin said in an article that he considers President Xi a “good old friend” with whom he has developed the “warmest relations.”
Putin said the “significant” visit by Xi “reaffirms the special nature of the Russian-Chinese partnership, which has always been built on mutual trust, respect for each other’s sovereignty and interests,” in comments published on the Kremlin’s website and in the Chinese People’s Daily newspaper.
The leaders are expected to discuss a deepening of Sino-Russian political and economic cooperation during the visit, with a number of unspecified bilateral agreements expected to be signed.
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said ahead of the meeting that the presidents are also “likely to discuss sanctions evasion schemes and Chinese interest in mediating a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine.”
China has called for a cease-fire to the war in Ukraine but has refused to condemn Moscow’s unprovoked invasion.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the occupied city of Mariupol at the weekend, visiting several districts of the city that was largely destroyed by Russian forces earlier on in the war.
In a carefully choreographed visit, Putin traveled to the port city in southern Ukraine by helicopter before he was seen driving and inspecting parts of the city and talking to local residents. On Saturday, he had reportedly visited Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
While there, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin was seen reporting to Putin on construction work in the city, with the Kremlin issuing a statement noting that Putin was informed on “the construction of new residential microdistricts, social and educational facilities, housing and communal service infrastructure, and medical institutions.”
The visit has been seen as a show of defiance by the Kremlin after the International Criminal Court issued on Friday an international arrest warrant for the Russian president over alleged war crimes carried out during the invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv accuses Moscow of carrying out a number of war crimes in Mariupol, including the bombing of a theater in which hundreds of civilians were sheltering, as well as the shelling of a maternity hospital. Russia claimed the theater had been bombed by Ukraine’s Azov battalion and said the hospital was being used as by Azov fighters as a base, despite evidence to the contrary.
After a prolonged and bloody siege between Russian forces and fighters from the Azov battalion, who had holed themselves up in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine’s forces finally surrendered and Russia declared it had complete control of the city in May.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, an aide to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, slammed Putin’s surprise trip to Mariupol on Twitter, saying the president had come to “admire the ruins of the city” and that the visit showed “cynicism and a lack of remorse.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Chinese President Xi Jinping is making a landmark three-day state visit to Moscow on Monday as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to shake global relations between the East and the West.
China has become Russia’s most important ally in recent years, but Beijing has tried to avoid any overt show of support for Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine or — “special military operation” — as Putin calls it, instead calling for a cease-fire and offering to broker a peace deal.
Xi’s visit to Moscow is nonetheless a political coup for Putin, who has looked increasingly isolated on the global stage following the invasion of Ukraine that has not been as simple as Moscow is believed to have expected it to be.
In the meantime, international sanctions have been piled on Russia, forcing it to look further afield to its erstwhile trading partners in Asia for business. And last Friday, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin over alleged war crimes committed during the invasion of Ukraine.
— Holly Ellyatt
Turkey will start ratifying Finland’s NATO application; International court issues arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes
