Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin ‘churning out’ rockets, drones and tanks with help of China, Blinken says

Russia would “struggle” to sustain its invasion of Ukraine without support from China, Antony Blinken has said.

The US secretary of state said Beijing was providing Moscow with machine tools and microelectronics that were helping Russia to “churn out” rockets, drone and other weapons.

“Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support,” Mr Blinken said on a visit to Beijing on Friday.

“Beijing cannot achieve better relations with Europe while supporting the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.”

Ukrainian agriculture minister Mykola Solsky was released from custody on bail on Friday pending a corruption investigation into allegations he took part in an illegal acquisition of state-owned land worth some $7 million.

Solsky has denied the allegations, which relate to events in 2017-2021 before he started as farm minister in March 2022. He was ordered into custody on Friday, but later told Reuters that bail of 75.7 million hryvnias ($1.9 million) had been paid.

Solsky tendered his resignation on Thursday but technically remains in his post until parliament reviews his request. He is the first known minister under president Volodymyr Zelensky to be named a suspect in a graft case.

The investigation is to determine whether Solsky should be formally charged and put on trial. Prosecutors told a court hearing on Thursday the allegations were punishable by up to 12 years in jail. Solsky was unavailable for immediate comment.

Drone patents have soared across the world amid a “new arms race” for the technology’s use on the battlefield, experts have warned.

Russian guided bombs struck an industrial facility and a residential building in northeastern Ukraine on Friday, wounding at least four people, local officials said.

Three children and a woman were hurt when bombs hit a central part of the town of Derhachi in the Kharkiv region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said on the Telegram messenger.

Two bombs struck an industrial facility in the Sumy region, regional authorities said, but gave no further details.

The two neighbouring regions border Russia and have suffered frequent aerial attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The strikes have become more intense in recent weeks, hitting civilian and energy infrastructure.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken raised concerns on Friday about China’s support for Russia’s military, one of the many issues threatening to sour the recent improvement in relations between the world’s biggest economies.

Blinken raised the matter during five-and-a-half hours of talks with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Beijing, the latest high-level contact between the countries that have reduced the acrimony that pushed ties to historic lows last year.

“The secretary discussed concerns about PRC support to the Russian defense industrial base,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, adding the two sides also discussed Taiwan, the South China Sea and other flashpoints.

The PRC is short for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

Spain will send a small number of Patriot missiles to Ukraine, El Pais newspaper reported on Friday, in response to pressure from EU and NATO allies to send more military aid to Kyiv.

With Russia having stepped up air attacks on Ukraine, EU governments have been urged to supply more protective systems to Kyiv, especially countries like Greece and Spain that have such arms in their arsenal.

Greece said on Thursday it would not be able to provide air defence systems to Ukraine.

El Pais, quoting unidentified government sources, said on Friday that Spain had ruled out delivering Patriot anti-aircraft launchers but it would supply the Ukrainian military with missiles for the system.

“The transfer of a small number of missiles has come after the defence ministry refused to hand over to Ukraine the battery it has had deployed since 2013 on the Turkish-Syrian border,” El Pais said.

“It will be a very limited number, as the Spanish war reserve is around 50 units and interceptors are very expensive.”

The defence ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the report but on Thursday a Spanish diplomatic told foreign reporters that Madrid needed to step up its commitment to Ukraine.

Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece can not offer air defence systems like Patriots or S-300 to Ukraine responding to pressure from EU and NATO allies to send more military aid to Kyiv.

With Russia having stepped up air attacks on Ukraine, EU governments are under pressure to supply more protective systems to Kyiv especially countries like Greece and Spain that have such systems in their arsenal.

“Greece is not going to send S-300 or Patriot to Ukraine,” Mitsotakis said in an interview in Skai TV late on Thursday.

European Union ministers said on Monday they were looking urgently at how to provide more air defences to Ukraine but they stopped short of concrete pledges of the Patriot systems that Kyiv values most.

“We were asked and we explained why we cannot do it,” Mitsotakis said adding that these systems are “critical to our deterrent capability.”

Defence is a very sensitive issue for Athens given the tensions with Turkey, especially for a conservative government.

Greece has sent to Ukraine in the past thousands of rockets, explosives, IVFs vehicles, high explosive incendiaries, ammunition and anti-tank rockets.

The US will host on Friday a virtual meeting of Ukraine international aid donors, days after Congress emerged from a half-year of deadlock to approve a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine.

Russia yesterday said that Poland was playing a “very dangerous game” by considering the possibility of hosting US nuclear weapons.

Polish president Andrzej Duda earlier said he had invited prime minister Donald Tusk for talks on 1 May about the possibility of nuclear weapons from Nato states being deployed in Poland.

Mr Duda has reiterated his position that Poland would be ready for such a possibility, prompting Mr Tusk to say he would like a clarification from the president.

Russian state news agency RIA quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that such discussions were provocative.

“If they follow the path of further escalation – and this is how the discussions can be assessed, these so far verbal games with nuclear weapons – then a further round of tension will occur. And in general, this game is very dangerous, its consequences may be hard to predict,” he said.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said any US nuclear missiles in Poland could become targets in the event of a Russia-Nato war.

“It is not difficult to assume that if American nuclear weapons appear on Polish territory, the corresponding objects will immediately join the list of legitimate targets for destruction in the case of direct military conflict with Nato,” she told reporters.

The United States has secretly provided Ukrainian armed forces with long-range ballistic missiles which have already been used to strike targets deep within Russian territory, according to US officials.

Our White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg reports:

A US citizen arrested on drug charges in Moscow amid soaring Russia-US tensions appeared in court yesterday and had his case adjourned until mid-May.

Robert Woodland is facing charges of trafficking large amounts of illegal drugs as part of an organized group — a criminal offence punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He was remanded into custody in January, and the trial began in the Ostankino District Court in late March.

“Our position is that there is, I may say, no evidence of drug sales in the materials on the case,” his lawyer Stanislav Kshevitskii told reporters.