Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

China firmly opposes the United States imposing sanctions on Chinese enterprises for Russia-related reasons, the Chinese commerce ministry said on Monday.

China will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

The Biden administration on Friday announced new trade restrictions on 93 entities from Russia, China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan, India and South Korea for supporting Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

The action, one day before the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, essentially bans U.S. shipments to the targeted entities, including eight from China, 63 from Russia, 16 from Turkey and four from the UAE.

— Reuters

Russia is preparing a new offensive against Ukraine that could begin in late May or summer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday, denying that his country is at its weakest point in the war.

“We will prepare for their assault. Their assault that began on Oct. 8 has not brought any results, I believe. We, for our part, will prepare our plan and follow it,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv, Reuters reported.

He denied Ukraine is at the weakest point in the war, instead telling NBC that this is the most difficult time for unity.

“I don’t think that now it’s the weakest moment,” he said. “The weakest, or rather, [the most] shocking moment was on February 24, two years ago. Now is the hardest moment for our unity. If we all split, both externally with the partners, and God forbid, internally, then it would be the weakest moment. It hasn’t happened yet,” Zelenskyy told NBC’s Richard Engel at a news conference Sunday.

Zelenskyy said events in the Middle East had distracted attention from Ukraine, noting that this had coincided with the end of Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive and Russia beginning offensive operations.

“Now we just see the consequences, when we are weakened by the quantity of weapons. Otherwise we wouldn’t notice it … The aid package has weakened — we have weakened on the battlefield, in those directions that you mentioned,” Zelenskyy said.

He said the first year of the war was about survival, the second year about resilience, and as Russia and Ukraine enter a third year of war, the country faces challenges in the form of elections, war and funding fatigue.

 — Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s invasion two years ago.

“31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in this war. Not 300,000 or 150,000, or whatever Putin and his lying circle are saying. But each of these losses is a great loss for us,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference.

He said he could not disclose the number of wounded because it would help Russian military planning.

It’s the first time Ukraine has published an official death toll since late 2022. The true figure is likely to be far higher, with U.S. officials estimating last August that at least 70,000 Ukrainian troops had died and that up to 120,000 had been injured.

Russia is also tight-lipped about military losses, although both sides claim to have inflicted tens of thousands of casualties upon each other’s forces. Zelenskyy claimed Sunday that 180,000 Russian troops had been killed in action during the war. CNBC was unable to verify the claims.

— Holly Ellyatt