Live Updates: China Rejects Misinformation Accusations

BEIJING — China rejects accusations of helping Russia spread disinformation about Washington’s involvement in Ukraine, while repeating Moscow’s baseless claims about secret US biological warfare labs in Ukraine.

“Accusing China of spreading disinformation about Ukraine is disinformation in itself,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said during a daily briefing on Thursday. He said China acted “in an objective and fair manner”.

Wang said the international community continued to have “serious concerns” about US biolabs in Ukraine, despite rebuttals from independent scientists.

“The United States can’t get by with silence or pretending it’s disinformation. The United States should seriously clarify whether this is disinformation or not,” Wang said.

The lab’s claims have also taken hold in the United States, bringing together COVID-19 conspiracy theorists, QAnon adherents and some supporters of former President Donald Trump.

China claims to be neutral in the conflict, although it maintains what it calls unlimited friendship with Russia, which it calls its “most important strategic partner”. China has refused to criticize Russia for its invasion – or even refer to it as such – and Chinese state media has repeatedly regurgitated Moscow’s false claims about the conflict.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINE WAR:

– Ukrainian president to press Biden and NATO for more support

– Biden and Western allies meet in Brussels as war in Ukraine enters second month

– UN to vote to blame Russia for humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

— The Russian stock market, crushed by the war, partially reopens

— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage

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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

NEW YORK — The Russian stock market has resumed limited trading under heavy restrictions, nearly a month after prices plummeted and the market shut down following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Trading in a limited number of stocks, including energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft, took place under restrictions intended to prevent a repeat of the sell-off that took place on February 24 in anticipation of economic sanctions Western. Strangers cannot sell and traders cannot sell short, otherwise betting prices will fall. The benchmark MOEX gained 8% in the first few minutes of trading.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Two Norwegian media are reporting that Jens Stoltenberg has had his post as NATO Secretary General extended for one year.

Stoltenberg’s term at NATO is due to end later this year. Norwegian television channel TV2 and Dagens Naeringsliv newspaper reported that there was complete unity within NATO for Stoltenberg to continue as Secretary General for another year. They gave no source for the report.

In February, the Norwegian government announced Stoltenberg’s appointment as head of the Scandinavian country’s central bank and said it hoped he could take up his new role around December 1.

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NEW YORK — The Russian stock market has resumed limited trading under heavy restrictions, nearly a month after prices plummeted and the market shut down following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Trading in a limited number of stocks, including energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft, took place under restrictions intended to prevent a repeat of the sell-off that took place on February 24 in anticipation of economic sanctions Western. Strangers cannot sell and traders cannot sell short, otherwise betting prices will fall. The benchmark MOEX gained 8% in the first few minutes of trading.

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BRUSSELS — US President Joe Biden and world leaders have opened the first of a trio of summits in Brussels aimed at pressuring Russia to end its war in Ukraine.

Europe’s diplomatic capital is hosting an emergency NATO summit as well as a gathering of the industrialized nations of the Group of Seven and a summit of the 27 members of the European Union.

Biden attends all three meetings, starting with NATO.

The president and the leaders of the other NATO countries met for a group photo commemorating their urgent gathering before entering the meeting, which was expected to last several hours.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg opened Thursday’s meeting by saying the alliance is determined to keep raising costs for Russia.

Biden arrived in Brussels on Wednesday hoping to urge his allies to pass new sanctions against Russia, which has already seen its economy crippled by a steady stream of bans, boycotts and sanctions over the past four weeks. .

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BRUSSELS — NATO leaders refuse to rule out retaliation against Russia if it were to launch a chemical weapons attack on Ukraine — but British Prime Minister Boris Johnson thinks Moscow has already gone too far.

“The reality is that (President) Vladimir Putin has already crossed the red line into barbarism,” Johnson told reporters on Thursday upon arriving at the NATO leaders’ summit.

Johnson says “it is now up to NATO to look together at the appalling crisis in Ukraine, the appalling suffering of the Ukrainian people, and to see what more we can do to help the Ukrainian people protect themselves.”

As an organization, NATO does not supply arms to Ukraine. The 30-nation alliance refuses to send troops to Ukraine, either for combat or peacekeeping, and has said it will not deploy planes to protect civilians or monitor areas of air exclusion.

But member countries provide weapons and other forms of assistance, individually or in groups.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo describes Putin as “a Russian leader who has lost all sense of what is reasonable these days”.

De Croo warns that “if chemical weapons or anything else could be used, it would certainly have serious consequences”. No NATO leader has yet clarified what that might mean.

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PARIS — French automaker Renault announced on Wednesday evening that it was suspending “the activities of the Renault factory in Moscow” with immediate effect.

The move came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the French parliament virtually, calling on Renault and other French companies with a presence in Russia to stop indirectly supporting the war against Ukraine.

The Renault group’s board of directors met on Wednesday to decide to halt production at the plant which produces the Arkana, Kaptur, Duster and Nissan Terrano SUVs amid growing criticism over its location in the Russian Federation.

However, the lion’s share of the group’s Russian presence is through its subsidiary AvtoVAZ, through which it sold nearly 500,000 vehicles in Russia in 2021.

Renault said AvtoVAZ is not retiring immediately, but is “assessing available options, taking into account the current environment, while acting responsibly towards its 45,000 employees in Russia.”

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PARIS — The French Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that the country had successfully tested the modernized version of its nuclear missile, the Air-Sol Moyenne Portée.

In a statement, it said it was tested “without a military payload” and was fired from a Rafale twin-engine multirole fighter jet that took off from Cazaux Air Base 120 in southwestern France.

The ASMP medium-range air-to-ground nuclear missile, developed by the arms manufacturer MBDA, represents part of the aerial component of French nuclear deterrence. The announcement comes at the height of the war in Ukraine, when some observers fear the possibility of a military escalation by Russia.

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BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said any chemical attack by Russia on Ukraine would change the tide of the war, but he did not say whether NATO would take military action.

Asked if a chemical weapons attack is a red line for NATO, Stoltenberg said: “I will not speculate beyond the fact that NATO is always ready to defend, protect and react to any kind of attack on a NATO allied country”.

Stoltenberg states that “any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict. It would be a flagrant violation of international law, and it will have far-reaching and serious consequences. »

His remarks came on Thursday as he arrived at NATO headquarters in Brussels to chair a summit of the military organization’s 30 national leaders, including US President Joe Biden.

NATO allies are concerned about Russian rhetoric and fear that Moscow wants to create a pretext to use chemical weapons in Ukraine. The leaders are likely to agree to send equipment to help protect Ukraine against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

They are also ready to approve a decision to create four new multinational battle groups in Eastern Europe to deter Russia from attacking NATO members.

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LVIV, Ukraine – The Ukrainian Navy announced on Thursday that it destroyed the large Russian landing ship, Orsk, near the port city of Berdyansk.

A short statement on Facebook about the ship was accompanied by photos and videos of fires and thick plumes of smoke in the harbor.

The Russian military has not commented on what happened to the ship.

Berdiansk has been under Russian control since February 27.

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WASHINGTON — The US State Department said Russia has begun the process of expelling several other diplomats from the US embassy in Moscow.

The ministry said it received on Wednesday a list of diplomats declared “persona non grata” by the Russian Foreign Ministry. He did not say how many diplomats were affected by the order, which usually results in the deportation of those targeted within 72 hours.

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan on Monday to protest President Joe Biden’s description of Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a “war criminal” for invading Ukraine. After this meeting, Russia warned that it was about to sever diplomatic relations with the United States, which would be unprecedented.

The State Department called Wednesday’s decision “Russia’s unnecessary and unproductive last step” in relations between the countries. He urged Russia “to end its unwarranted expulsions of American diplomats and personnel.”