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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he understood China’s Xi Jinping was concerned about the situation in Ukraine, a surprising acknowledgment of friction with Beijing over the war after a week of stunning Russian losses on the ground.
Since Russia’s invasion, China has tread a cautious line, criticizing Western sanctions against Russia but stopping short of supporting or assisting in the military campaign.
“We highly value the balanced position of our Chinese friends when it comes to the Ukraine crisis,” Putin told Xi in their first meeting since the war began.
“We understand your questions and concerns about this. During today’s meeting, we will of course explain our position.”
Xi did not mention Ukraine in his public remarks, nor was it mentioned in a Chinese readout 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 for Moscow, which needs markets for its energy exports and sources to import high-tech goods as it faces sanctions imposed by the West.
The last time the two men met, they signed a “no limits” friendship agreement between their two countries. Three weeks later, Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Russian president’s comments hinted at a Chinese shift toward a more critical stance, at least privately. Ian Bremmer, a professor of political science at Columbia University, said it was the “first public sign that Putin acknowledged the pressure to back down.”
“Russia has become a pariah to the G7 because of their invasion. China wants no part of it,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the group of seven leading industrialized nations.
White House spokesman John Kirby said China should reject Russia’s invasion: “The whole world should stand up against what Mr. Putin is doing,” Kirby told CNN.
“This is not the time for any kind of business as usual with Mr. Putin.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later told reporters that the closed-door talks with China had been excellent.
“European friends” of Kiev
In Kiev, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where she told him that Ukraine’s accession process to the European Union was well under way.
Ukraine became a candidate to join the EU in June, in a bold geopolitical move hailed by both Kiev and Brussels as a “historic moment”.
Von der Leyen said the EU would never be able to match the sacrifices Ukrainians are making or compensate them for their struggle for democracy and humanity, but promised, “you have your European friends by your side as long as it takes.”
EU sanctions against Russia are having a deep and visible impact, she said, and while it is expensive to provide support, “freedom is priceless”.
After a week of the fastest Ukrainian advances since the first weeks of the war, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces were now consolidating defenses and that it would be difficult for Kiev’s troops to maintain the pace of their advance.
Putin has yet to publicly comment on the setback his forces suffered after Ukrainian troops made a rapid armored push through the front line last week. Russian troops hastily abandoned dozens of tanks and other armored vehicles.
Kyiv says it captured more than 8,000 square kilometers, almost the size of the island of Cyprus. The speed of the advance has boosted Ukrainian morale, satisfied Western backers who have provided weapons, intelligence and training, and raised hopes of further significant gains before winter sets in.
More challenges for Ukraine
Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, said it would still be an uphill battle to wrest control of his region back from Russia, which recognizes it as an independent state controlled by separatists.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in an online post: “We should avoid euphoria. There is still a lot of work to be done to liberate our countries, and Russia has a large number of weapons.”
There was also no slowdown in Russia’s daily missile attacks on Ukraine, a day after it fired cruise missiles at a reservoir dam near Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyi’s hometown.
Authorities in the city of Kharkiv said Russian shells had hit a high-pressure gas pipeline while a rescue operation was underway in the city of Bakhmut with four people believed to be trapped under the rubble after an attack, Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk regional governor. said.
Russian forces had launched attacks on several settlements on the Kharkiv frontline in the past 24 hours, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said on Thursday.
But the UK Ministry of Defence said in an update that Ukraine’s forces continued to consolidate their control over newly liberated land in the region.
The United States on Thursday imposed new sanctions against 22 individuals and two entities that had facilitated Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Treasury Department said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had previously warned Washington to tread carefully, saying any decision to supply Kiev with long-range missiles for US-made HIMARS systems would cross a “red line” and make the US “a direct party to the conflict “. .”
The UN nuclear watchdog’s 35-nation board passed a resolution on Thursday demanding Russia end its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, diplomats said at the closed-door meeting.
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