French President Emmanuel Macron
is just about to depart from China
after attempting to fulfill a lofty goal
to negotiate an end
to the largest ground war in Europe
since World War Two.
Macron says he is counting on China's
leader Xi
Jinping to reason with Russia's
president Vladimir Putin.
As he tells
Macron, it's,
quote, in
nobody's interest, unquote, for the war
to drag on.
Back on the battlefield, CNN's
Ben Wedeman visits
Ukrainian troops
defending positions in the east.
Armed with resolve and very,
very old weapons
Zhenya prepares his 50 caliber
machine gun.
He didn't fire this time.
But he needs to be always on alert.
Russian forces are nearby.
This position
on the northern edge of the
Kharkiv region
hasn't seen much action of late.
But the men here
have seen plenty elsewhere.
In January,
Zhenya was in a front line
foxhole in Donbass.
Withdraw from early in the morning.
They would shell us with artillery,
and right afterwards
their infantry would try
to take our positions, he recalls.
You could see them.
Much of the area south of here
saw vicious combat.
Last September,
Ukrainian forces
routed the Russians
for much of the Kharkiv region.
Before retreating,
they toppled the Soviet
era communications tower.
Scorched earth.
Their tactic of choice.
This position
manned by the 209th battalion
of the Ukrainian Army's
113th Brigade, is holding steady.
Defense,
not offense, is the order of the day.
Aleksey was a nuclear physicist
before picking up a gun.
We have enough ammunition
and we have enough weapon and
different armor equipment.
But it's all for defense
equipment for the counterattack.
It will be better
because if he is on the free, I will have
the weapons they have are hardly
the latest.
The troops showed us
a Swedish made recoilless rocket launcher
dating back to 1978.
They defend their position
with other decades old methods
beyond this razor wire.
Just on the other side are landmines
Fortunately,
this area is relatively quiet,
which is a welcome
respite for these battle scarred troops.
Stumbled was a nightmare
is how you have gone describes
the battle in the dead of winter
in Donbas.
I'll remember it for the rest of my life.
52 year
old Vitaly served with Russians
in the Soviet army.
This war has severed all ties.
The youth we ate from the same pot,
he says, reminiscing of his days
as a young recruit.
That was then.
This is now, after so many battles.
They prepare for the next Ben Wedeman,
CNN, in the northern Kharkiv region.
And our thanks to Ben Wedeman in Ukraine.
In Russia, authorities
have formally charged
Wall Street
Journal reporter
Evan Gursky book with espionage.
That's according to Russian state media,
which added that he continues
to deny the accusation.
Secretary of State
Antony Blinken told reporters
on Wednesday that there's no doubt
he's being wrongfully detained.
Gersh Kovac is a journalist, not a spy.
He was detained by Russian authorities
last week ludicrously accused of spying.
This is the first time
it's happened
to an American journalist
since the end of the Cold War.
The Wall Street
Journal released this statement
after reports emerged the first group
which had been formally charged.
Quote,
These charges are categorically false
and unjustified
and we continue to demand Evans
immediate release, unquote.
Russian state
media says a Moscow court
will hear an appeal filed by Herskovitz
his lawyers against his arrest
later this month. What a travesty.