MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the phone, the Kremlin reported.
A terse readout published Friday on the Kremlin’s website said the two discussed “the situation around Ukraine,” including a deal mediated by Turkey and the U.N. to facilitate Ukrainian grain shipments and Russian exports of fertilizers and agricultural products.
“The need for the conscientious fulfillment of the second part of the ‘package’ regarding the elimination of obstacles to the relevant shipments from Russia to the most needing countries was emphasized,” the readout said.
French President Emmanuel Macron also spoke with Erdogan on Friday, telling him that pressure on Russia needs to be increased as well as its isolation “so that it renounces its enterprise of aggression” in Ukraine.
Turkish-Russian trade levels have risen over the past year, which is a concern for France and other Western nations that have imposed sanctions on Russia.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
NAIROBI, Kenya — U.S. first lady Jill Biden has recalled her trip to Ukraine last year as “such an emotional moment.”
Biden and the besieged country’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, visited a school that was being used to help migrants who fled the fighting. Some of the families, she said, had hid underground for weeks before making their escape.
“You could see the children, how shy they were, and how downcast. You could see the effect of war on the children,” Biden said, speaking to the Associated Press on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
The interview took place on Friday in Nairobi, Kenya, the second and final stop on the first lady’s five-day trip to Africa.
“We thought then, how long can this go on? And here we are, a year later,” she said.
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WARSAW, Poland — The leaders of Germany, France and Poland have pledged their countries’ support for Ukraine and its people will continue “as long as it takes,” and have called on Russia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine’s territory.
The declaration by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish President Andrzej Duda — the three leaders of the so-called Weimar Triange, was issued Friday on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
After a Group of Seven meeting on Friday, Macron said the G-7 allies were “united and determined until victory” for Ukraine and the “return of peace.” Macron posted the comments on Twitter on Friday after the G-7 leaders spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video conference.
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WASHINGTON — Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States has called the U.S. her country’s “Strategic Friend No. 1.”
In Washington, a stiff wind whipped blue and yellow flags set in the ground to mark the days of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, used the event to say the U.S. had begun distributing $9.9 billion allocated by Congress to help pay salaries and otherwise support Ukraine’s government through the end of the fiscal year.
Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova said the second year of the war would be “the year of winning.”
Power acknowledged Markarova’s thanks and added, “We are grateful to you” for the persistence of democratic Ukraine in fighting the Russian invasion. “We are awed by your commitment to the values that we cherish here in the United States.”
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TBILISI, Georgia -- Thousands of Georgians took to the streets of the country’s capital on Friday to express solidarity with Ukraine, while the ex-Soviet nation’s president blasted her government’s “neutral position” on the Russian aggression.
Georgia, which in 2008 survived a war with Russia over a breakaway region controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, has provided Ukraine with humanitarian aid, taken in thousands of war refugees and joined all international resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But its authorities stopped short of supplying Kyiv with military assistance, citing the need to maintain neutrality and not get dragged into the conflict.
President Salome Zourabichvili said in a statement Friday that the government’s “neutral and balanced” position was “incomprehensible to a country that has gone through the same test many times, which knows very well what it means when its sovereignty is violated by the enemy and the sword raised against independence, which best understands the bitterness of occupation.”
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