Meeting between Russia’s Putin and China’s President Xi as the conflict in Ukraine persists

WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Friday that he has plans to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

During a conference with students in Russia, Putin stated, “Soon enough we will have some events and there will be a meeting with the Chinese President [Xi Jinping].”

Expressing his admiration for Xi, Putin added, “He [Xi] calls me his friend, and I am happy to call him my friend because this is a man who personally contributes significantly to the development of Russian-Chinese relations and cooperation in various fields.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its allies have imposed several rounds of coordinated sanctions, resulting in Russia becoming the most-sanctioned country in the world, surpassing Iran and North Korea.

The White House has expressed concerns about China’s alignment with Russia and the potential assistance provided by the world’s second-largest economy to Moscow as the war continues.

The last meeting between the two leaders was held in March at the Kremlin. A month later, Xi had his first phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

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The upcoming meeting between Putin and Xi coincides with the steady progress made by Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.

The White House reported that Ukrainian forces have made “notable progress” in southern Zaporizhzhia in the last 72 hours.

“Now, as for their future actions and how they leverage this success, I’ll leave it to them to discuss. However, we have witnessed significant progress,” stated National Security Council spokesman John Kirby during a conference call with reporters.

Kirby refrained from providing further details due to operational security risks.