Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin arrives in China with ‘serious expectations’ for Xi summit – UK Times

Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have started their meeting, state media reported.

Putin arrived at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and met his Chinese counterpart around 11am local time.

Putin was greeted with a welcome ceremony which featured an honour guard and the playing of both countries’ national anthems.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is accompanied by a delegation including deputy prime ministers, ministers and heads of state corporations and major banks.

Putin and Xi will likely seek to display the so-called “no limits” partnership between China and Russia as strengthened since the West imposed sanctions to punish Russia for the war in Ukraine.

• The Kremlin has set “serious expectations” for Putin’s visit, which, alongside talks, will include a signing ceremony and a banquet followed by a tea where the two leaders will discuss key international issues in an informal setting.
• Some ​40 documents are expected to be signed and a 47-page joint statement on their strengthening partnership will be issued, according to ‌the Kremlin.
• Putin and Xi are also expected to adopt a ⁠joint declaration on establishing a multipolar world order and a “new type of international relations”, a Kremlin aide said.
• Negotiations on the Power ⁠of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which is due to link Russia to northern China, are also likely to be on the cards, industry experts said.
• Energy supply shortages ‌linked to the conflict in Iran may back Russia’s case for ​the pipeline as a long-term gas source, but Beijing may want to stick to its supply diversification strategy.

Russia is considering the possibility of joint projects ⁠with the United States and China, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct ⁠Investment ​Fund, Russia’s sovereign ⁠wealth fund, was quoted as saying ⁠by state media this morning.

In a few hours, Russian president Vladimir Putin will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, days after Xi had talks with US president Donald Trump.

“Within the framework of the Russian Direct Investment Fund we are also looking at certain projects, including those involving both ‌China and the ​US”, Dmitriev, Putin’s ‌special envoy and ⁠a key figure in ⁠talks between Moscow and Washington, said.

The European Union’s top military general Sean Clancy has said that Ukraine remains its top priority on Tuesday.

“The extraordinary resilience of the Ukrainian armed forces and the Ukrainian people has transformed Ukraine into a fortress nation,” Clancy told Euro News arguing that Ukraine’s security is now “integral to the future security of Europe.”

He said Ukraine remains the EU’s “number one priority”.

Renat Suleimanov, a Russian lawmaker and state Duma representing the country’s Communist party has called for “the quickest possible end” to the country’s war with Ukraine.

“It is absolutely obvious that the economy will not withstand a prolonged continuation of the special military operation,” Suleimanov said to Kontinent using the Kremlin’s term for the war.

“Officially, 40 per cent of the federal budget is defense and security. What kind of development, investments, and capital expenditures can we talk about?”

He said that the war “has already lasted longer than the Great Patriotic War (World War II)“ and said that “the quickest possible end” to the conflict was “simply necessary.”

The process of redeploying US military forces and assets in Europe is underway, but no decision has been made to reduce the US military capabilities in Poland, Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on Tuesday on X.

“The U.S. Secretary of War confirmed that the United States’ commitment to Poland’s defence and security remains unchanged,” he also wrote after his conversation with Pete Hegseth.

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, on Tuesday said Moscow had information that Ukraine planned to launch military drones from Latvia and other Baltic states, warning that membership in NATO would not protect those countries from retaliation.

Nebenzya, speaking during a UN Security Council meeting on security in Ukraine, claimed Kyiv had already dispatched Ukrainian drone forces to Latvia.

Latvia’s envoy to the Security Council, Sanita Pavluta-Deslandes, immediately rejected the remarks as “pure fiction.” Tammy Bruce, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the UN, warned that the UN was “no place for threats against a council member” and said the U.S. would keep all its NATO commitments.

Pausing, turning and pointing, like hounds catching a new scent, Europe’s leaders are picking up a blood trail from the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin’s forces were once the hunters – now they are bleeding and Ukraine has the whiff of victory in its nose.

In the latest sign that Ukraine’s systematic new policy of trying to kill at least 50,000 Russians a month is working, Putin has told his people that the end of the war he started is near.

And, in an act that was both desperate and doomed, he suggested that Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor, could act as Europe’s envoy in talks.

The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley reports:

Russia has begun massive manoeuvres of its nuclear forces, including practice launches of nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles, following a surge in Ukrainian drone strikes.

The three-day exercise will involve 64,000 troops, over 200 missile launchers, more than 140 aircraft, 73 surface warships and 13 submarines, including eight armed with nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Defence Ministry said.

According to the ministry, the drills will focus on the “preparation and use of nuclear forces under the threat of aggression.”

James C Reynolds reports: