Ukraine war live updates: Putin makes rare visit to meet troops in Ukraine; Moscow court denies WSJ reporter’s appeal

Switzerland’s government said it was working to seriously implement and enforce sanctions on Russia, after G7 ambassadors expressed concerns that Russians could take advantage of Swiss privacy laws and other loopholes to hide large sums of money in offshore assets.

“We adopted the (EU) sanctions and of course we take this completely seriously and we are simply doing everything that can be done in order to enforce them seriously,” Swiss President Alain Berset said during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

He also stressed his country’s condemnation of Russia for its war, and support for Ukraine.

The G7 letter sent to the Swiss Federal Council this week said the group of nations was concerned that “law enforcement officials are blocked from investigating illicit financial structures … because of privacy protections,” and that Swiss officials “were unable to freeze assets under protections for dual nationals, legal residents, those with legal ties to Swiss entities, or those holding indirect beneficial ownership. We share a concern that these loopholes to legal action put Switzerland at reputational risk.”

Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said the concerns were baseless.

— Natasha Turak

Ukraine will try to unblock exports of food and grain through Poland in a second day of talks in Warsaw on Tuesday after some of its staunchest allies in central Europe imposed bans on its products.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have recently banned imports of Ukrainian grains and produce to protect their markets from an influx of cheaper supply.

Ukraine’s exports via these countries have risen due to Russia’s invasion, which has blocked some of its Black Sea ports.

Bottlenecks caused by slowed rail shipments or a lack of railcars have exacerbated the problem, trapping large quantities of Ukrainian grain in Central Europe which has lowered prices and hurt sales by local farmers, turning up the heat on governments.

Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party faces an election this year and counts on rural areas for support.

Ukraine and Poland began talks on Monday over Warsaw’s ban, which went further than others by stopping Ukrainian grain and food in transit.

Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus told public radio station PR1 on Tuesday that talks were set to continue.

In Hungary, officials were checking shipments of Ukrainian grain at the border, only allowing transit deliveries to pass, MTI news agency cited Marton Nobilis, the Agriculture Ministry’s state secretary for the food industry and trade policy, as saying.

Hungary and other countries in central Europe have joined together in pushing for an EU-wide solution.

The EU has criticised Poland, Hungary and Slovakia for putting individual bans in place. EU envoys were set to discuss the bans on Wednesday, according to a senior EU official, who said low global prices and demand meant grain was staying in the bloc rather than being sold on.

The bans come as a deal allowing Ukraine to export millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea is set to expire on May 18.

Russian demands have left the prospect of an extension of the deal uncertain. The combined impact of the bans and failure to agree an extension would strand millions of tonnes of grain inside Ukraine, a major agricultural producer that generate a substantial part of its gross domestic product from grain and food sales.

— Reuters

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow and Beijing should expand their military cooperation as he held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, in Moscow on Tuesday.

Shoigu congratulated Li on his recent appointment as Chinese’s defense minister and said:

“I am convinced that your extensive experience of interaction with the Russian Federation will contribute both to the development of the armed forces of the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and to the expansion of military cooperation between our countries,” Shoigu said, according to news agency RIA Novosti.

“I look forward to the closest and most fruitful cooperation with you in the spirit of unbreakable friendship between our countries, peoples, and also the armed forces of Russia and China,” Shoigu said.

Shoigu said Russia appreciated Li choosing Russia as the location of his first foreign trip in the role. Russia and China have been cultivating deeper political and military ties in recent years and Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Moscow last month.

Heavy fighting has continued along the front line in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday, but it noted that Russia could be concentrating its forces on capturing Bakhmut now.

“There is a realistic possibility that Russia has reduced troop numbers and is decreasing offensive action around Donetsk city, most likely to divert resources towards the Bakhmut sector,” the ministry said in an intelligence update on Twitter.

The U.K. said Russian regular units and mercenary forces belonging to the Wagner Group “continue to make creeping advances” in Bakhmut and that “the front line in the town centre largely follows the main railway line.”

“Ukraine is generally holding Russia’s envelopment from the south along the line of Korsunskovo Street, the old main road west out of town,” the ministry said.

For both sides, the exact sequencing of any major drawdown of their units around Bakhmut has become a critical question, the ministry noted, with “Ukraine wanting to free-up an offensive force while Russia likely aspires to regenerate an operational reserve.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a rare trip to meet Russian military commanders and troops fighting in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Tuesday.

Putin reportedly visited the headquarters of troops located in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, a region partially occupied by Russian forces, where he was briefed on the military situation there by air force and army commanders.

On arriving at the headquarters, Putin reportedly said, “I don’t want to distract you from your direct duties related to command and control, so we are working here in a business-like manner, briefly, but concretely,” news agency Tass reported.

“It is important for me to hear your opinion on how the situation is developing, to listen to you, to exchange information,” Putin said.

The president was then seen asking military commanders to report on the situation in Kherson and nearby Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, which is also partially occupied.

It’s rare for Putin to visit Russian troops in Ukraine, and this was the first visit by the president to the Kherson region. The last time Putin was seen in Ukraine was on March 19, when he purportedly visited Mariupol and Rostov-on-Don, where he also met military leaders.

The White House called for regular and routine visits with detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

“Certainly we conveyed to him how hard we are going to continue to work his case,” National security council spokesman John Kirby said on a conference call with reporters.

“We also conveyed that same message to his family,” Kirby added.

Earlier on Monday, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy said she visited Gershkovich at Lefortovo prison.

Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 on espionage allegations and, if convicted, the 31-year-old journalist could face a 20-year prison sentence under Russian law.

The Biden administration and The Wall Street Journal have denied allegations that Gershkovich has ever worked on behalf of the U.S. government as a spy.

— Amanda Macias

Ukrainian artillerymen prepare to launch artillery toward Russian positions on the frontline, in Donetsk region.

— Anatolli Stepanov | AFP | Getty Images

There’s been an international outcry after a Russian court sentenced Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison for treason, and other charges including spreading “false” information about the Russian army.

The U.S., U.K. and Germany condemned the sentence with London calling the conviction of Kara-Murza, an opposition politician, journalist, and human rights activist in Russia and a British dual national, “politically motivated.”

The U.K’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has summoned the Russian ambassador Andrey Kelin, and said it would “make clear that the U.K. considers Mr Kara-Murza’s conviction to be contrary to Russia’s international obligations on human rights, including the right to a fair trial.”

Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said “Russia’s lack of commitment to protecting fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression, is alarming. We continue to urge Russia to adhere to its international obligations including Vladimir Kara-Murza’s entitlement to proper healthcare.”

The U.S. embassy in Russia said in a statement that “the court’s decision today to sentence Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison for expressing an opinion critical of the policies of his government is another terrible sign of the repression that has taken hold in Russia. We call for his immediate release.”

Elsewhere, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement that the 25-year prison sentence was “another blow to the rule of law and civic space in the Russian Federation.”

“No one should be deprived of their liberty for exercising their human rights, and I call on the Russian authorities to release him without delay,” Turk said.

— Holly Ellyatt

A Moscow court on Monday jailed outspoken Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza for a quarter of a century after it found him guilty of treason and other offenses he denied, Reuters reported.

Kara-Murza, 41, a father of three and an opposition politician who holds Russian and British passports, spent years speaking out against President Vladimir Putin and sought to have Western governments impose sanctions on Russia and individual Russians for purported human rights violations, Reuters reported.

State prosecutors had accused him of treason and of discrediting the Russian military after he criticized what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

In his final speech to the court last week, Kara-Murza had compared his own trial, which was held behind closed doors, to Josef Stalin’s show trials in the 1930s and had declined to ask the court to acquit him, saying he stood by and was proud of everything he had said, according to Reuters.

— Melodie Warner

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu on Sunday, marking the latest high-profile meeting between Russian and Chinese officials in recent months.

Footage of the meeting showed Putin shaking hands with Li and then sitting down at a table at which Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was also seen.

“We are working actively through our military departments, regularly exchange useful information, work together in the field of military-technical cooperation, and hold joint exercises,” Putin said, Reuters reported.

Recent joint drills, he said, strengthened “the extremely trusting, strategic nature of our relations.”

Russia’s defense ministry said Friday that Li would make his first foreign trip to Russia on April 16-18 since his appointment to the post. The ministry said negotiations between Li and Shoigu would take place during the visit, which concludes Tuesday, and that the officials would discuss cooperation in the defense sphere and issues of global and regional security.

Putin’s latest meeting with a senior Chinese official comes almost a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow in March in which the leaders reaffirmed their strategic cooperation. Putin also met one of China’s top diplomats, Wang Yi, in February.

China’s State Council released a statement Sunday saying Beijing is willing to work with Russia to deepen “strategic communication between the two militaries, strengthen multilateral coordination and cooperation, and make new contributions to the maintenance of world and regional security and stability.”

— Holly Ellyatt