Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Uzbekistan, as Moscow struggles with its most significant military setbacks in Ukraine in months. Putin told Xi he understands China’s concerns about the “Ukrainian topic.”
(Bloomberg) — Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Uzbekistan, as Moscow struggles with its most significant military setbacks in Ukraine in months. Putin told Xi he understands China’s concerns about the “Ukrainian topic.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Union’s executive, arrived in Kyiv for her third visit since Russia invaded Ukraine for talks on economic cooperation and progress toward accession in the bloc.
A day earlier, she pledged in her annual state of the union address to work to guarantee “seamless” access for Ukraine to the bloc’s massive single market to help its economy recover from the war. The US is preparing another package of aid to Ukraine after the government in Kyiv said it recaptured more than 2,300 square miles of occupied territory.
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Key Developments
- China’s Xi Meets Putin For First Time Since Ukraine Invasion
- IMF Appoints Ukraine Chief With Experience of War-Torn Iraq
- Putin’s Options Narrow After Ukraine Delivers Battlefield Rout
- Ukraine’s Leader Visits Largest City Seized Back From Russians
- Xi Unlikely to Throw Putin a Lifeline as Ukraine Struggles Mount
On the Ground
Russian forces are strengthening the first line of defense in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions in Ukraine’s east and south by moving reserves and deploying remnants of units withdrawn from the Kharkiv axis, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Facebook. Ukrainian troops repelled several attacks in the vicinity of the eastern city of Bakhmut, according to the statement. The situation in liberated settlements in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine is “extremely difficult” amid vast damage, and authorities are calling on civilians to evacuate immediately as Russian troops shell the areas, Yaroslav Yanushevych, the head of the regional military administration, said. Russia struck the cities of Mykolayiv, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia overnight. In Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s home town, eight missiles hit the water system Wednesday night, causing flooding and prompting temporary evacuations of citizens.
(All times CET)
Putin Says He Understands China’s Concerns (1:37 p.m.)
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping he understands China’s concerns about the “Ukrainian topic” and appreciates China’s “balanced” position, according to Tass, as the pair began a meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
China’s Xi Meets Putin For First Time Since Ukraine Invasion
Zelenskiy’s Home Town Targeted by Multiple Cruise Missiles (1:10 p.m.)
Cruise missiles aimed at Kryvyi Rih caused “serious destruction” at an industrial enterprise in Kryvyi Rih on Thursday, regional governor Oleksandr Vilkul said on Telegram.
The city is still recovering from flooding in the aftermath of eight Russian Kinzhal and Iskander missiles that hit its water system on Wednesday night. People from several municipal districts were evacuated and over 100 buildings were flooded after river levels rose following a missile hit to a major dam. Rescue teams had to demolish two other dams downriver to release excess water.
Russia Says Long-Range Missiles Would Cross ‘Red Line,’ IFX Reports (12:52 p.m.)
Supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine would cross a “red line” and make the US a part of the conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says, according to Interfax.
The Pentagon has sent Ukraine its most accurate artillery shell, the GPS-guided Excalibur, according to budget documents seen earlier this month.
Read more: Most-Accurate US Artillery Shell Is Added to Ukraine’s Arms
Ukraine Says Army Liberated 400 Settlements (12:02 p.m.)
Troops have liberated 400 settlements in several days of the counteroffensive, most of them in east Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his daily statement last night.
Around 150,000 people are no longer living under Russian occupation, and are enjoying “normal and safe” lives, he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk said 1 million to 1.2 million Ukrainians remain in territories still occupied by Russian troops.
China’s Xi Poised for First Putin Meeting Since Ukraine Invasion (9:03 a.m.)
Both leaders are in Uzbekistan for a two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Beijing-led group seen as a counterbalance to US-dominated alliances.
Xi and Putin “planned to discuss both the bilateral agenda and key regional and international topics” on Thursday, Putin aide Yury Ushakov told Russia’s Tass news agency, adding that the Ukraine and Taiwan issues will be discussed.
Germany Pushes Global Fund for Rebuilding Ukraine (9 a.m.)
The Group of Seven wants to take the lead in setting up a global fund that would raise money from investors such as banks and hedge funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine, according to German Economy Minister Robert Habeck.
Habeck told reporters at a meeting of G-7 trade ministers that a “gigantic sum” will be required to reverse the damage caused by Russia’s invasion, saying that it’s “more money than public money can cover alone.”
“Let’s not debate if it’s only 330 or 400 billion,” said Habeck, who is hosting the meeting at a castle near the Polish border as part of Germany’s G-7 presidency. “It’s about creating a big, global fund with a lot of money to be raised from private investors, banks, hedge funds or whatever, to really build up Ukraine.”
Zelenskiy Involved in Car Crash (3:05 a.m.)
A passenger car collided with a vehicle carrying Ukrainian president as his motorcade was returning to Kyiv from the Kharkiv region, Serhiy Nykyforov, a spokesman for the president, said in a post on Facebook, without indicating what sort of injuries the president may have received.
“Doctors who accompany the president checked him, no serious injuries were detected,” Nykyforov wrote, adding “doctors accompanying the head of the state provided emergency aid to the driver of the car and transferred him to an ambulance.”
Read more: Ukrainian President Zelenskiy in Car Crash, No Major Injuries
Pentagon to Replace Javelins Sent to Ukraine (1 a.m.)
The US Army’s assistant secretary for acquisition, Douglas Bush, said the service plans to have $1.2 billion in contracts in place by next September to replace Javelin anti-armor missiles that have been supplied to Ukraine.
As part of that effort, Raytheon Technologies Corp and Lockheed Martin Corp, the joint makers of the Javelin, received a $311 million contract on Tuesday. That was on top of a $309 million order in May, Bush said, adding “There’s more coming.”
More than 6,500 Javelin anti-armor systems have been committed to Ukraine from Defense Department stocks.
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