???? Live: Russian defence minister visits captured Mariupol to inspect reconstruction efforts

Issued on: 06/03/2023 – 09:01Modified: 06/03/2023 – 09:05

8:33am: Russia’s defence minister inspects reconstruction work in Mariupol

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited Mariupol to inspect Russian reconstruction efforts of the Ukrainian port city’s infrastructure, the defence ministry said, without specifying the date of his visit.

According to the statement, Shoigu visited a medical centre, as well as a new residential area consisting of 12 apartment buildings.

Mariupol, which is located in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, was badly destroyed before it was captured by Russian forces at the end of May last year.

6:00am: Russia’s air defence downs three missiles in Belgorod region 

At least one person was wounded in the southern Russian region of Belgorod on Monday after Russian forces shot down three missiles, the governor of the region bordering Ukraine said.

The falling debris had also brought down some power lines near the town of Novy Oskol but the full scope of the damage was not immediately known, the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on the Telegram messaging app.

“It’s known about one wounded, a man with shrapnel wounds to his hand,” Gladkov said.

2:20am: Russia’s Wagner chief warns of frontline collapse if forced to retreat from Bakhmut

The founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force said his troops now tightening their grip on the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut were being deprived of ammunition, and if they were forced to retreat, the entire front would collapse.

“If Wagner retreats from Bakhmut now, the whole front will collapse,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video published over the weekend. “The situation will not be sweet for all military formations protecting Russian interests.”

Prigozhin on Friday said that his units had “practically surrounded Bakhmut,” where fighting has intensified in the past week with Russian forces attacking from nearly all sides.

But on Sunday he complained that most of the ammunition that his forces were promised by Moscow in February had not yet been shipped.

1:28am: Scholz warns of ‘consequences’ if China sends arms to Russia

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says there would be “consequences” if China sent weapons to Russia for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, but he’s fairly optimistic that Beijing will refrain from doing so.

Scholz’s comments came in an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, two days after he met US President Joe Biden in Washington.

Asked by CNN if he could imagine sanctioning China if it did aid Russia, Scholz replied: “I think it would have consequences, but we are now in a stage where we are making clear that this should not happen, and I’m relatively optimistic that we will be successful with our request in this case, but we will have to look at (it) and we have to be very, very cautious.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)