MOSCOW, May 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping will discuss the Ukraine conflict and US-Russia relations in talks between the two presidents in Moscow on May 8, the Kremlin said.
Moscow and Beijing have deepened ties amid Russia’s military offensive on Ukraine, launched in February 2022.
“The most important issues will be discussed in a one-on-one meeting, the Ukrainian topic and Russian-US relations,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
Russia is rolling out the red carpet for Xi with a state visit, set to start on Wednesday, with the Chinese president also set to be guest of honour at Moscow’s grand May 9 Victory Day parade on Red Square.
China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in the three-year conflict, although Western governments say its close ties to Russia have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in April accused China of supplying arms to Russia, and alleged Beijing knew of at least 155 Chinese nationals fighting alongside Russian forces.
Beijing denied that its citizens were being recruited en masse by Russia and urged Chinese nationals not to become involved in conflicts.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said 29 foreign leaders – – among them China’s Xi Jinping and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — will attend its May 9 parade, in a list including at least two territories not internationally recognised as countries.
There has been mounting speculation over the parade, which Russia said will be its grandest to date, evoking the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II to rally support for its troops fighting in Ukraine.
Kyiv hit Moscow with drones on Tuesday, three days before the event.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said troops from 13 countries — including China, Egypt, Vietnam, Myanmar and several ex-Soviet countries — will march in the Red Square parade, taking place three years into Moscow’s Ukraine offensive.
Kyiv on Tuesday warned foreign troops not to march alongside Russian soldiers on Red Square, saying this would equate to “sharing responsibility” for Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico are the only European leaders who will attend the event. Fico defied warnings from Brussels not to go.
Moscow said leaders from Indonesia, Burkina Faso, Bosnia, Vietnam, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Congo, Myanmar, Cuba, Ethiopia and Equatoral Guinea will join Russia’s traditional allies from Central Asia for the parade.
The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, decades-old rivals, will both attend the parade, as well as the heads of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two separatist pro-Russian territories of Georgia, which are not recognized by the international community. — NNN-AGENCIES
