Russia

Children have died from lack of access to treatments for rare diseases such as epileptic encelopathy. They need drugs distributed by foreign companies, which abandoned the country after the invasion of Ukraine. The war not only causes extermination and destruction on Ukrainian soil, but also suffocates the lives of the weakest and most fragile in Russia.

Whether they unconditionally support militant patriotism, are only hoping for the end of the nightmare, or timidly trying to oppose it by risking imprisonment in a lager and expulsion from all form of social life, all Russians look to the future with a sense of bewilderment and uncertainty, anger and guilt, frustration and the horror of emptiness.

In expressing his closeness, Francis writes: “There is no day when I [. . .] do not carry you in my heart [. . .], you who suffer the terror unleashed by this aggression.” For hi, the world “has come to see” Ukrainians as a “noble and martyred people”. Faced with the cold winter and the rockets landing on power stations that make the suffering even more tragic, Francis cites the trials of the Holy Family in Bethlehem, noting that “the light came, not from men, but from God”.

Despite being shut out of the SWIFT international payments system, Russia did not turn to China’s (CIPS). Putin was betting on the yuan-centred system to replace the one based on the dollar after the attack on Ukraine. Refineries in China have stopped buying crude oil from Russia for December, waiting to see the effect of new Western sanctions on Russia’s oil sector.

Boris Fedjukin, leader of the Libertarian Party, has not fled abroad like other opposition politicians. This war 'cannot be attributed to the will of all citizens in Russia'. Dissidents subjected to constant checks and searches. "Russians value freedom more than it seems".

​The head of European diplomacy Borrell met with regional leaders in Samarkand. The area is increasingly central to EU policy. Talks on infrastructure, energy, water resources, immigration and the fight against disinformation. Concern over situation in Afghanistan. Criticism of the Russian war in Ukraine.

Ukrainians must not seek “revenge against the Russians”, but rather the triumph of a democratic society, inspiring not the imposition of their own system, but opt for a real interaction between civilisations, something that is in short supply at present.

Today's headlines: a devastating fire north of the Gaza Strip kills 21 people, including seven children; Beijing, more online censorship:comments must be approved; wild animal trafficker arrested by Thai police with tiger cubs from Laos; Afghan refugees in Pakistan fear mass arrests; Russian ports are on the verge of collapse.

Former President Saakashvili's National Movement chooses its new president. If elected, Georgij Mumladze promises tough politics against the pro-Russians of the Georgian Dream, now in power. Saakashvili, in prison and ill, is holding back. For ruling leader, the Movement is at an end.

A year ago the trial of the humanitarian association Memorial began. Closed on 28 February, it won the Nobel Peace Prize. Activists work in hiding to continue its efforts: 'They will not shut us up'. The group expects changes in Russian society, "huge changes".

There are distinctions in the text, but it is the first time since the outbreak of the conflict that the Chinese have signed a document of this magnitude. The 'limitless' friendship between China and Russia seems less and less solid. Beijing calls for restraint after missile falls on Polish territory.

At the general audience, the pontiff issued a new call to prayer after the missile attack that caused death and damage to many civilian infrastructures. In his catechesis, Francis spoke of the desolation in our spiritual life that shakes the "aseptic serenity that makes one inhuman". Disquiet as "a response to the objection that the experience of God is a mere projection of our desires".