China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, held a phone call with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday after Russian troops invaded Ukraine and began airstrikes on numerous Ukrainian cities. The call is part of a delicate geopolitical balancing act on China’s part. Beijing has been careful not to explicitly endorse …

President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine to “free Ukrainians from oppression,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday, reflecting Moscow’s stark interpretation of the bombing and airstrike campaign against its pro-Western neighbor. “President Putin has decided to conduct a special military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, so …

Ukraine’s president denounced Russia in a televised address: “They say that civilian objects are not a target for them. It is a lie. They do not distinguish in which areas to operate.” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shifted the debate in the French presidential race, shining a spotlight on the …