Putin acknowledges China’s “questions and concerns” about the Ukraine war

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he understood Xi Jinping’s concern about the situation in Ukraine, a surprising acknowledgment of the rift with Beijing over the war after a week of staggering Russian casualties on the ground.

Since the Russian invasion, China has taken a cautious approach, criticizing Western sanctions against Russia but not supporting or aiding the military campaign.

“We highly appreciate the balanced position of our Chinese friends regarding the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin said during their first meeting since the beginning of the war.

“We understand your questions and concerns about this. We will, of course, explain our position at today’s meeting.”

Xi did not mention Ukraine in his public remarks, nor in a Chinese reading of their meeting, which took place in Uzbekistan on the sidelines of a regional summit.

Pressure on Putin?

Beijing’s support is widely seen as essential to Moscow, which needs markets for its energy exports and sources to import high-tech goods while facing sanctions imposed by the West.

The last time the two men met they signed an “unlimited” friendship pact. Between the two countries. Three weeks later, Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Russian president’s comments signaled a Chinese shift to a more critical stance, at least in private. Ian Bremmer, a political science professor at Columbia University, said this was “the first public sign that Putin has acknowledged pressure to back down”.

Russia has become a pariah from the G-7 because of its invasion. “China does not want to be part of it,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the industrialized nations of the Group of Seven.

White House spokesman John Kirby said China should reject a Russian invasion, and Kirby told CNN: “The entire world should stand up against what Mr. Putin is doing.”

Now is not the time to pretend nothing happened with Mr. Putin. »

Later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that the closed-door talks with China were excellent.

“European Friends” in Kiev

In Kiev, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, telling him that Ukraine’s accession process to the European Union is on the right track.

Sirens sounded twice during their meeting, a reminder that Russia has long-range weapons that can reach anywhere in Ukraine even though the capital has been spared attacks in recent weeks.

Ukraine became a candidate for membership of the European Union in June, in a bold geopolitical move that both Kiev and Brussels described as a “historic moment”.

Von der Leyen said the EU would not be able to match the sacrifices made by Ukrainians or compensate for their fight for democracy and humanity, but pledged that “your European friends will be on your side as long as it takes”.

EU sanctions against Russia have had a profound and visible impact, she said, and while providing support was costly, “freedom is priceless”.

After a week of the fastest Ukrainian gains since the first weeks of the war, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces were now strengthening their defenses and it would be difficult for Kiev’s forces to keep up the pace of their advance.

Putin has yet to comment publicly on the setback suffered by his forces after Ukrainian forces made rapid armored advances across the front line last week. Russian forces hastily abandoned dozens of tanks and other armored vehicles.

Kiev claims to have recovered more than 8,000 square kilometres, roughly the size of the island of Cyprus. The rapid advance boosted Ukraine’s morale, satisfied Western donors who provided weapons, intelligence and training, and raised hopes of more significant gains before the army arrived.

More challenges for Ukraine

Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, said it would remain a fierce battle to wrest control of her region from Russia, which recognizes it as an independent state controlled by separatists.

Oleksey Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said in an online message: “We must avoid euphoria. There is still a lot of work to be done to liberate our lands, and Russia has a large number of weapons.”

Nothing has stopped Russia’s daily missile strikes on Ukraine, a day after it fired cruise missiles at a reservoir dam near Kryvyi Ri, Zelensky’s hometown.

Kharkiv city authorities said Russian shells hit a high-pressure gas pipeline, while a rescue operation was underway in the town of Bakhmut with four people believed to be trapped under rubble after the strike, according to Pavlo Kirilenko, the governor of the Donetsk region.

On Thursday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that Russian forces had launched attacks on several settlements on the front line in Kharkiv in the past 24 hours.

But the British Ministry of Defense He said in the update Ukrainian forces continue to consolidate their control over the newly liberated territories in the region.

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Thursday that her country will supply Ukraine with two multiple rocket launchers and 50 armored personnel carriers. Lambrecht also said that an agreement between Germany, Greece and Ukraine was nearing completion, with Germany sending 40 Marder infantry vehicles to Greece while Greece in turn would transfer 40 Soviet BMP.1 infantry vehicles to Ukraine.

The United States on Thursday imposed new sanctions on 22 individuals and two entities that facilitated Russia’s war in Ukraine, the US Treasury Department said.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned Washington to exercise caution, saying that any decision to supply Kiev with long-range missiles for US-made HIMARS systems would cross a red line and make the United States a “direct party” to the conflict. »

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation board of governors on Thursday approved a resolution demanding Russia end its occupation of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, diplomats said in a closed-door meeting.