Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin heads to China summit just days after Xi and Trump meeting

The meeting comes after Russia attacked a Chinese ship headed for a Ukrainian port

• Bookmark
• CommentsGo to comments

Bookmark popover

Removed from bookmarks

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is heading to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a two-day trip to Beijing, just days after Trump visited.

The two leaders are set to discuss the proposed Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, a Kremlin aide said, which could one day deliver an additional 50 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year from Russia's Arctic gas fields via Mongolia to China.

The meeting comes after Russia attacked a Chinese ship headed for a Ukrainian port, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The Russian drone struck the KSL DEYANG vessel flying under Marshall Islands flag off the coast of Ukraine early on Monday, a source earlier told Reuters news agency.

The vessel was did not contain cargo and was bound for Ukraine's Pivdennyi port in the Odesa region where it was to load iron ore concentrate. Although a fire was sparked, the vessel was not seriously damaged and no one was injured.

“The Russians could not have been unaware of what vessel was at sea,” Mr Zelensky said.

Xi and Putin exchanged “congratulatory letters” on Sunday ahead of the latter’s visit to Beijing, just four days after Donald Trump left China after a high-stakes summit.

• Suspected Ukrainian sea drone crashed on Greek island ‘after malfunction’
• Moscow pounds cities with over 1,500 drones in largest two-day aerial attack since war began
• Latvian prime minister resigns after controversy over stray Ukrainian drones
• Shock in Ukraine as corruption court arrests Zelensky’s former right-hand man

Key Points

• Russian drone strikes Chinese cargo vessel bound for Ukraine
• Xi and Putin to hold two-day summit in Beijing days after Trump leaves
• Belarus holds nuclear training drills with Russian weapons
• Russia says it destroyed over 3,000 Ukrainian drones last week
• War Briefing: What we know on the 1,544th day of the war in Ukraine
• Russia attacks Ukraine's Odesa and Dnipro with drones and missiles overnight

Moscow says Ukraine peace process can resume

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.

Kyiv couple killed in a fierce Russian airstrike hoped to start a family, mourners say

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.

Read more here:

Kyiv couple killed in Russian airstrike hoped to start a family, mourners say

Russia has 'serious expectations' for Putin's trip to China, says Kremlin

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.

Russian drone hits civilian vessel under Guinea-Bissau flag, says Kyiv

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.

In pictures: Nato holds biggest special forces exercise in Europe

Kyiv condemns nuclear weapons drills in Belarus

Kyiv has condemned nuclear weapons drills in Belarus, saying that deployment of tactical weapons in the country constituted an "unprecedented challenge" to global security.

"By turning Belarus into its nuclear staging ground near Nato borders, the Kremlin is de facto legitimising the proliferation of nuclear weapons worldwide and setting a dangerous precedent for other authoritarian regimes," the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Kyiv also urged its Western allies to tighten sanctions against Moscow and Minsk: "Such actions must face unequivocal and resolute condemnation from all states that respect the nuclear non-proliferation regime."

Explosives found near crash site of suspected Ukrainian drone in Lithuania

Explosives have been found near the debris of a suspected Ukrainian military drone that crashed in Lithuania, and they will be disposed of through an explosion at the scene as the materials are too dangerous to remove, Lithuanian police said.

The drone was not detected when it entered Lithuania, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, chief of Lithuania's National Crisis Management Centre, told reporters on Sunday.

It was found crashed in the village of Samane, the centre said, which is 40 km (25 miles) from the Latvian border and 55 km from Belarus. Kyiv has not yet commented on the issue.

Separately, the Latvian army said a drone alert was issued on Sunday morning along its border with Russia.

One drone entered Latvia for a short time during the alert, the army said.

With Reuters

US companies involved in Russian attempts to export grain from occupied Crimea - Zelensky

Ukraine has observed attempts by Russia to export grain from the occupied Crimea region which involved companies from the United States, president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday.

"In particular, we have recorded attempts to organise the export of grain from the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea – and, regrettably, other forms of economic exploitation of the peninsula involving entities from the United States," he said on X.

Mr Zelensky said Moscow was also trying to bring investment from "democratic countries" into Russia's Arctic oil and gas projects.

Europe-US unity must survive 'difficult period', says Polish PM

Transatlantic unity between Washington and Europe must survive a difficult moment in history, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said on Monday.

Mr Tusk was stressing the importance of Warsaw's ties to Washington after the Pentagon cancelled plans to deploy 4,000 US-based troops to Poland.

"The task of all of us here in Poland, in Europe, across the Atlantic, in the US, in Canada, is to ensure that transatlantic cooperation, regardless of various political variables, survives this difficult period," Mr Tusk told reporters.

Report: Putin to visit Chinese leader Xi Jinping days after Trump's trip to Beijing

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a two-day trip to Beijing next week, the Kremlin said Saturday.

The announcement comes less than 24 hours after U.S. President Donald Trump finished his own state visit to China, where he also met Xi to discuss trade and the U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran.

In a statement, the Kremlin said that Putin’s trip, planned for May 19-20, had been scheduled to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship.

It said that the two leaders would discuss bilateral relations as well as “key international and regional issues” and economic cooperation.

Relations between China and Russia have deepened in recent years, particularly since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 left Moscow shunned on the global stage and heavily reliant on Beijing for trade due to Western sanctions.

Read more here:

Putin to visit Chinese leader Xi Jinping days after Trump's trip to Beijing

More about

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies