February 24, 2023 - It's now one year since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began

China's Foreign Ministry said Friday that the country takes a "responsible approach" to military exports and does not provide arms sales to conflict areas, a day after a German media outlet claimed Beijing is negotiating with Moscow to supply drones. 

Drone claims: Wang's comments came in response to a question about reporting Thursday by German news magazine Der Spiegel that said Beijing and Moscow are negotiating the purchase of 100 strike drones, which could be delivered as soon as April, according to information the outlet obtained.

Western officials have raised concerns this week that China may be considering providing Russia with lethal military assistance — an accusation denied by Beijing.

China is willing to play a constructive role in resolving issues between Ukraine and Russia, its Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Friday in a daily briefing, without providing concrete details.  

The response, a recurrent line that China has been using when asked about its position on the war in Ukraine, was prompted by questions about a position paper issued by Beijing on Friday. 

New paper, old message: In the new document addressing the war in Ukraine, China’s Foreign Ministry called for a resumption of peace talks, an end to unilateral sanctions, and stressed its opposition to the use of nuclear weapons — a stance Chinese leader Xi Jinping communicated to Western leaders last year.

The 12-point paper is part of Beijing’s latest efforts to present itself as a neutral peace broker, as it struggles to balance its “no-limits” relationship with Moscow and fraying ties with the West as the war drags on.

Beijing’s claim to neutrality has been severely undermined by its refusal to acknowledge the nature of the conflict — it has so far avoided calling it an “invasion” — and its diplomatic and economic support for Moscow.

Western officials have also raised concerns that China may be considering providing Russia with lethal military assistance, an accusation denied by Beijing.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Friday announced a new package of sanctions and trade measures against Russia, coinciding with the first anniversary of President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine.

The new package includes an export ban on “every item Russia has been found using on the battlefield to date,” including aircraft parts, radio equipment and electronics, he said.

The sanctions also target 92 individuals and entities, including executives at Russian banks, nuclear power firms and defense companies.

If you can remember clearly the Europe of a dizzying year ago, perhaps the biggest surprise in where we find ourselves now is the extent to which the West has been reminded of its values and purpose.

Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine served as the unwitting antidote to six years of clumsy populism and the huge economic and psychological shock of the pandemic. It also worked to counter a sense that morality, and the virtue of values, were becoming obsolete in the face of the many challenges posed by the world’s crises.

It shouldn’t have taken the deaths of thousands of innocent Ukrainians, the threat of nuclear attack, and the leveling of so much of a country, to make this point. But it’s perhaps the revulsion to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal and inept war that helped Europe and the rest of the West rediscover a collective sense of purpose.

The eyes of three old men thrust into our van in Posad Pokhrovka, in the early days of the war, desperate to flee shelling that had torn their world apart, still haunt me: Not even the Nazis beat them like that, they said, sobbing. They never thought they’d live long enough to see worse than the 1940s.

Wars can intensify scrutiny of both sides’ conduct to the point where each can be accused of some degree of wrongdoing. So, it’s important to pause at this point and consider the ugliness of the way Russia has waged this war.

Read the full analysis here.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russian mercenary group Wagner, said Friday that his fighters have taken full control of a northwestern suburb of Bakhmut, a strategic city in eastern Ukraine where fierce fighting has raged for months.

CNN could not immediately verify Prigozhin’s claim that the village of Berkhivka had fallen under Wagner's control.

It comes after a Ukrainian military official on Thursday said the situation near Bakhmut remains "the most difficult" as Russian forces try to encircle the city.

Before launching its full-scale invasion, Moscow had its eyes on what it thought was a weakness: Ukraine’s power grid.

And yet after hundreds of attacks on its energy facilities, the country has managed to keep the lights on.

Since October, Moscow’s forces have launched hundreds of missiles and drones at energy infrastructure far from the front line, temporarily cutting off electricity, heat and water to millions.

Their attacks appear to be aimed at breaking the country’s power grid and the will of the people with it — a campaign of terror that violates international law.

But Ukrainians have persevered through the cold and darkness.

See how they did it in this CNN special report.

China's release of a document Friday outlining its position on the conflict in Ukraine is "a good sign," a Ukrainian diplomat said, as she urged Beijing to engage with Kyiv and "do more to end the war."

Speaking at an event in the Chinese capital, Zhanna Leshchynska, Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires to Beijing, said “China should do everything in its power to stop the war and restore peace in Ukraine and urge Russia to withdraw its troops."

As a self-proclaimed neutral party, Beijing should speak to both Moscow and Kyiv, she added. “In neutrality, China should talk to both sides: Russia and Ukraine, and now we can see China is not talking to Ukraine,” she said.

In its 12-point position paper released Friday, China reiterated its calls for a political settlement to the conflict and called for a resumption of peace talks, an end to unilateral sanctions and stressed its opposition to the use of nuclear weapons

China must fulfil its responsibility as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the European Union's ambassador to Beijing said on Friday.

Speaking at an event in Beijing, EU ambassador Jorge Toledo Albinana said the permanent members of the security council "have a special responsibility to defend the [UN] charter in the face of this kind of aggression," adding, "this is why we continue to call on our host China to fulfil its special responsibility.”

The Security Council, which has 15 members, has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Alongside the five permanent members of the United States, Russia, France, China and the United Kingdom, 10 temporary members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.

The UN was created to avoid “the exact kind of brutality in Ukraine,” the Spanish diplomat said.

China's position: In a news briefing Friday, Albinana said a 12-point document released by Beijing earlier in the day detailing its its position on the war in Ukraine is "not a peace proposal," and its content was something "which we knew already."

In the document, China reiterated its calls for a political settlement to the conflict and called for a resumption of peace talks, an end to unilateral sanctions, and stressed its opposition to the use of nuclear weapons

The EU will study the position paper closely, Albinana said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that despite all the hardships suffered by Ukrainians during the past 12 months of war, 2023 will be the year of the country's victory over Russia. 

Ukrainian authorities are bolstering security measures across the country on Friday as they brace for potential Russian attacks to mark the anniversary.