The visit of the Chinese president ended in Moscow, and solidarity with Russia was demonstrated during it, but no direct support for the war in Ukraine was offered, writes Reuters.
During his two-day visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping barely touched on the issue of the war in Ukraine, and on Tuesday, the 21st of March, during his closing speech, he only said that China’s position was impartial. Washington has responded by stating that Beijing’s position is far from impartial and called for pressure on Russia to withdraw its troops from the sovereign territory of Ukraine.
Xi’s visit to the Russian capital was a carefully staged show to demonstrate the close ties with the powerful Asian country, and there were also demonstrative expressions of friendship between the two authoritarian presidents. In the joint statements, the well-known insults to the West were expressed:
Washington is threatening the stability of the world and NATO is trying to push into the Asia Pacific region.
At the same time, it was insisted that Chinese-Russian relations do not constitute a military-political alliance.
Putin praised Xi’s «peace plan» and criticized the West and Kyiv for rejecting it. The West sees the plan developed by China as a time delay, which would give Moscow the opportunity to regroup and strengthen itself in the occupied territories.
As Xi wrapped up his visit, air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv and eastern and northern Ukraine.
The International Monetary Fund has announced a preliminary agreement with Kyiv on a loan package in the amount of about 15.6 billion dollars.
The US plans to speed up the delivery of 31 M1 Abrams tanks so that the equipment reaches Ukraine already in the fall. Ukraine has been asking for tanks and other Western weaponry for months, and the Pentagon has reported that the decision to supply a model of the tank, which uses diesel fuel like most of Ukraine’s equipment, is helping to speed up the tanks’ arrival on the battlefield. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on Western allies not to hesitate and provide more military support. He said: «One of the questions which always commands the utmost attention is the supply of ammunition, support from our partners.
We expect increased supplies of exactly what we need – and we need it right now.»
Battles are still particularly intense in a large area around Bakhmut. Oleh Zhdanov, a Ukrainian military expert and reserve colonel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, informed that the number of Russian attacks has increased dramatically.
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