Ukraine-Russia war latest: Xi reportedly told Trump that Putin might ‘regret’ invading Ukrainenewsline24

Russia and China are ready to support each other on a wide range of issues, including ⁠national unity and protection of sovereignty, president Vladimir Putin said in a video address ahead of a visit to China ⁠starting today.

Putin said the relations between Russia and China have reached an “unprecedented level” of mutual understanding and trust, as he prepared to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping for talks.

The countries are ready to cooperate on ‌mutually beneficial and equality-based principles ‌and “to support each other on issues affecting the core interests of the two countries, including ⁠the protection of sovereignty and national unity”, Putin said. He did not provide any further details.

Russia and China are actively expanding ties in economy, politics and defence, he said, adding that “a close” and “strategic” connection between Moscow and Beijing was playing “a stabilising role” in global relations.

“We are not aligning ⁠against anyone, but working for the cause of ‌peace and ​universal prosperity,” Putin ‌said.

Russia targeted eight regions of Ukraine in its nighttime drone and missile barrage yesterday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said as local authorities reported that the strikes wounded more than two dozen civilians, including three children.

Russian forces fired 524 attack drones and 22 ballistic and cruise missiles, Zelensky said.

The city of Dnipro and the surrounding central region of Ukraine bore the brunt of the attack, officials said.

The barrage continued a recent spiral of long-range strikes that have grown in scale following a 9-11 May ceasefire that US president Donald Trump said he asked Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin to observe but which had little impact.

There is no sign a peace deal is taking shape despite US diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s invasion.

Russia hammered Ukraine over several days last week, flattening a Kyiv apartment building where 24 people died.

Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s Yaroslavl region northeast of Moscow, governor Mikhail Yevrayev said this morning.

He asked drivers in the area to steer away from the capital or use alternative routes to avoid coming under attack or falling debris.

Russia downed ⁠a number of Ukraine drones heading towards Moscow, the city’s mayor Sergei ‌Sobyanin said ​on ‌Telegram yesterday.

Chinese president Xi Jinping told his US counterpart Donald Trump that Russian leader Vladimir Putin might come to regret invading smaller neighbour Ukraine during their talks last week, according to the Financial Times.

Several people familiar with the US assessment of last week’s summit in Beijing said Xi made the remarks when the US and Chinese delegations held wide-ranging talks on Ukraine and Trump suggested that the three leaders should co-operate against the International Criminal Court.

One person aware of the Chinese president’s meeting with former US president Joe Biden said that while the leaders did hold “frank and direct” conversations on Russia and Ukraine, Xi had not previously offered such an assessment of Putin and his war on Ukraine.

As we’ve been reporting, a Russian drone attacked a Chinese-owned cargo ship that was headed for a Ukrainian port, according to Reuters.

We’ve now heard from a spokesperson for the Ukrainian navy, who says it is unclear why Russian forces launched this attack in the Black Sea.

“It is unclear what the Russians were thinking when they struck a Chinese merchant vessel in our sea last night with a Shahed drone,” Dmytro Pletenchuk writes in a post on Facebook.

He questioned whether the strike was a “monstrous mistake”.

Moscow expects the Russia-Ukraine peace process to be resumed but it is currently paused, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov was commenting on remarks by Donald Trump that deadly Russian strikes on Ukraine could set back peace efforts.

Trump suggested to reporters on Friday that a Russian missile strike on a Kyiv apartment building that killed 24 people, including three children, had delayed efforts to reach peace in the four-year conflict.

Peskov said attention should be paid to ongoing strikes by Ukraine on civilian targets in Russia. Moscow faced its biggest drone attack in over a year at the weekend, with at least three people killed in the wider region around the capital.

Like many Ukrainians, Maryna Homeniuk fled her homeland after Russia’s full-scale invasion four years ago. She managed to complete her degree in the Czech Republic, adding Vietnamese to her impressive list of languages, before returning home the following year and meeting her beloved, Yurii Orlov.

Homeniuk and Orlov, who captained the Kyiv Floorball Club after playing hockey for teams in the Ukrainian capital, were among the 24 people killed Thursday during a terrifying wave of Russian airstrikes that Ukrainian military officials described as the biggest barrage of the war. A cruise missile flattened their apartment building.

On Saturday, friends and family paid their final respects to Homeniuk, a 24-year-old English teacher. They had hoped to pay tribute to Orlov, too, but his body wasn’t ready for burial yet.

“She was a very caring person. I feel very sorry, because she had so many dreams. She worked with children and wanted to have children herself someday, when times were safer,” her friend Olesia Yukhnovych said.

Russia has “very serious expectations” for president Vladimir Putin’s trip to China this week, the Kremlin said on Monday.

The two sides will use it to develop their privileged partnership, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Putin is to visit Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday, arriving just days after Donald Trump departed the Chinese capital.

The Russian delegation will include relevant deputy prime ministers, government ministers and company heads, Peskov told reporters.

A Russian drone hit a civilian vessel under a Guinea-Bissau flag that was heading to Ukraine’s port hub of Greater Odesa, the Ukrainian seaport authority has said.

A small fire broke out on the vessel, which the crew quickly extinguished, it said on Monday.

According to preliminary information, no one was injured in the attack and the vessel resumed its journey, it added.