Saturday evening, Paris displayed its “dismay” in reaction to the remarks of the Chinese ambassador to France: the latter denied the sovereignty of the countries resulting from the Soviet Union while questioning the membership of Crimea in Ukraine. .
It’s Friday, on LCI, that the diplomat Lu Shaye set fire to the powder. He considered that the countries of the former USSR had “no effective status in international law because there is no international agreement to concretize their status as sovereign countries”. He also called for people to stop “quibbling” over the issue of post-Soviet borders. “Now the most urgent thing is to stop, to achieve the ceasefire” between kyiv and Moscow.
He also mentioned the specific case of Crimea. Lu Shaye questions the idea that Crimea can be a Ukrainian territory, yet internationally recognized since 1991: “It depends on how we perceive this problem. There is History. Crimea was at the very beginning in Russia. It was Khrushchev who gave Crimea to Ukraine in the days of the Soviet Union.”
The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had “learned with dismay” of these remarks, asking China “to say (if they) reflect its position, which we hope not to be the case”.
Russia announces expulsion of 20 German diplomats
A pass of arms opens between Moscow and Berlin. The spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, announced the Zvezda television channel on Saturday the expulsion of “more than twenty” German diplomats, in retaliation for what the Kremlin presents as a similar measure taken by the authorities. German. “We strongly condemn these actions by Berlin, which continues to destroy […] the full range of Russian-German relations, including their diplomatic dimension”, justified Russian diplomacy. For its part, the German Foreign Ministry reported “a flight” on Saturday from Berlin with ” members of the Russian embassy on board, without specifying whether they were expelled diplomats.
Cyprus announces tough measures against violations of sanctions against Russia
Cypriot Finance Commissioner Pavlos Ioannou told state broadcaster CyBC on Saturday night that he had frozen the assets of people and entities accused by the US and UK of helping Russian oligarchs evade sanctions imposed on Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine. In this sense, the main bank of the island “informed 4,000 customers with a Russian passport and not residing in an EU country that their accounts were going to be closed”.
Cyprus has for several years been a haven of peace for particularly wealthy Russian nationals, especially on the south coast, in Limassol. Cypriot government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis claimed this week that President Nikos Christodoulides had contacted Washington and London to obtain evidence against those involved so they could be investigated. “In recent years, the authorities have also closed 43,000 fictitious companies and 123,000 “suspicious” bank accounts, added the governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus, Constantinos Herodotou.
The United Kingdom and the United States announced on April 12 sanctions against relatives of Russian oligarchs, including members of the entourage of Roman Abramovich and Alicher Usmanov, accused of having helped the latter to conceal their assets. Among the targets of these new British sanctions are Demetris Ioannides and Christodoulos Vassiliades, two Cypriot nationals.
The six Leopard tanks promised by Spain on their way to Ukraine
They should reach their destination in the next few days. The six Leopard tanks promised by Spain to kyiv left by sea on Friday evening, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles announced on Saturday. “The Leopards […] as well as about twenty transport vehicles, have embarked in the port of Santander and are heading for Ukraine, where they will arrive in five to six days,” the minister said. “There are four other Leopards in repair and when this is done, they will also go to Ukraine”, she added. This shipment is part of the aid of European countries engaged against the Russian offensive.