Their countries have professed a friendship “with no limits,’’ and on Wednesday top Chinese and Russian officials looked quite chummy during a meeting in Moscow, a sight likely to exacerbate concerns in Washington.
Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin the day after gathering with his head of security and saying relations between the nations are “solid as a rock.”
That’s in sharp contrast to Wang’s contentious meeting Saturday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who told him China supplying weapons to Russia would be a “serious problem” for the U.S. as they also discussed the surveillance balloon incident that has heightened tensions between the two superpowers.
China has declined to join much of the world community in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, instead echoing Moscow’s claim that the U.S. and NATO provoked the Kremlin and criticizing sanctions imposed on Russia. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is expected to visit Moscow in the coming months.
THE PRESIDENT’S TRIP:Biden calls Putin’s New START suspension a ‘big mistake.’ What is the nuclear arms treaty?
“Chinese-Russian relations have withstood the test of international turbulence, and are mature and durable,” Wang said Wednesday.
The concern about those relations leading to Chinese military assistance for Russia go beyond such aid stacking the odds against Ukraine and into the possibility of the conflict escalating into a larger confrontation.
On Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told The Associated Press there have been “some signs” China may be getting ready to provide weapons to Russia, while also saying the alliance will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”
IMPACT OF SANCTIONS:Russia can’t produce enough arms for its needs: Live updates
Developments:
►Representatives for EU countries will meet again Thursday after failing to agree Wednesday on a new package of sanctions against Russia intended to coincide with Friday’s one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion, Reuters reported.
►Ukraine issued a decree halting all transactions involving assets owned by Russian financial institutions. The decree, to last 50 years, prohibits establishing business relations, transactions and investments with Russian banks.
►Investigators have so far identified at least 91 Russian soldiers involved in war crimes in and around the town of Bucha, where more than 1,700 civilians were killed, Ukraine Prosecutor General Andrey Kostin said Wednesday.
►The International Federation of Journalists suspended the membership of the Russian Union of Journalists. Federation President Dominique Pradalié said efforts by Russian journalists to establish union branches in annexed Ukrainian territories have “clearly shattered … solidarity and sown divisions among sister unions.”
Sanctions have minimal impact on Russia’s economy
The global economic sanctions fueled by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago have slowed but not crippled the Russian economy, experts say.
Russia’s economy did shrink 2.2% in 2022 – far short of predictions of 15% or more that Biden administration and other western economists had forecast. This year, its economy is projected to outperform the U.K.’s, growing 0.3% while the U.K. faces a 0.6% contraction, according to the International Monetary Fund.
EU Foreign Affairs chief Josep Borrell said Russia’s economy survived because of high energy prices.
“But this is over,” he said. “We have gotten rid of our dependency on Russia’s hydrocarbons and the prices are going down. Russia is selling its oil at $40 a barrel – half the price of the Brent in international markets.”
Putin seeks to absorb Belarus by 2030
Putin’s imperial designs don’t end with annexing parts or all of Ukraine.
Russia also plans to absorb neighboring Belarus, according to a document that establishes 2030 as the end date for the Kremlin to take over the Belarusian politics, economy and military.
The 17-page document, created in 2021, was obtained through a collaboration of journalists from outlets in several countries, including Yahoo News in the U.S. and Ukraine’s Kyiv Independent. Yahoo said it was leaked from Putin’s executive office.
The document details a plan to complete a merger of the two countries into a Union State ruled by Moscow that would integrate the tax system and currency of Belarus, an independent country of 9 million under Russia’s strong influence.
“Russia’s goals regarding Belarus are the same as with Ukraine,” Michael Carpenter, the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told the journalists. “Only in Belarus, it relies on coercion rather than war. Its end goal is still wholesale incorporation.”
Founder of mercenary group steps up criticism of Russian military leaders
The founder of a Russian mercenary militia stepped up his social media attacks on Moscow’s military leadership Wednesday, publishing a photo of his dead soldiers and blaming the Kremlin for failing to provide his Wagner Group with adequate ammunition.
“If every Russian at his own level … would simply say ‘give ammunition to Wagner,’ as is already going on social media, then this would already be important,” Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy entrepreneur and close associate of President Vladimir Putin, said Wednesday on Telegram.
The posting came one day after Prigozhin released an audio statement claiming “direct resistance” from the Russian military was an attempt to destroy Wagner. He added that the behavior of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov “can be likened to high treason in the very moment when Wagner is … losing hundreds of its fighters every day.”
The Defense Ministry scolded Prigohzin in a statement late Tuesday, saying equipping the mercenary group properly has been a priority.
“Attempts to sow rifts in the tight mechanism of cooperation and support among the units of Russian forces are counterproductive and are only aiding the enemy,” the ministry said.
Finland to decide whether to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine
Authorities in Finland will decide as soon as Thursday on a proposal to provide German-built Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Finland is believed to own about 200 tanks, but it also has an 800-mile border with Russia to defend. Finland has sought but not yet been granted NATO membership, thus NATO would not be committed to fully support Finland’s defense should Russia invade.
Finland and Sweden are seeking membership but have been blocked by Turkey and Hungary. Hungary’s parliament is expected to ratify NATO membership for both nations as early next month, Hungarian media has reported. Turkey adopted a more conciliatory stance this week – after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu discussed possible purchase of U.S. F-16 aircraft with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
An up-close look at the frontline in Ukraine
Ukrainian military officials say U.S. weapons are making a major difference in their efforts to repel the Russian invasion. To highlight the value of the weapons, a senior Ukrainian military intelligence officer and several special forces soldiers guided a USA TODAY reporter in mid-February to a secret location on a ridge a few miles outside the frontline town of Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s mineral-rich eastern Donbas region.
A Ukrainian lieutenant colonel stood on frozen ground near what he regards as one of the Ukrainian military’s most prized possessions: an American-made M777 howitzer. It’s a powerful, towable and easily hidden long-range artillery weapon.
“This weapon changed the trajectory of the war for us,” he said. Read more here.
– Kim Hjelmgaard
IT’S HARD BUT THEY’RE HOLDING ON: On the ground in Ukraine, the war depends on U.S. weapons
Biden hopes to assuage concerns of Bucharest Nine
President Biden wrapped up his historic trip to Ukraine and Poland on Wednesday after holding talks in Warsaw with leaders from the Bucharest Nine, a collection of nations on the eastern edge of the NATO alliance that came together in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
The alliance members – including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – are concerned they could be next if Russia is successful in Ukraine. The White House has consistently lauded Poland and several other eastern flank nations for supporting Ukraine with weapons and economic aid and taking in refugees.
Contributing: The Associated Press
A deeper dive
•‘It’s hard, but they’re holding on,’ On the ground in Ukraine, the war depends on U.S. weapons
•’WE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME’:Displaced Ukrainian children risk erosion in school, mental health
• ‘Kyiv stands strong’: Biden declares Putin ‘was wrong,’ marks one year of Russia’s war in Ukraine
• Putin suspends nuclear arms treaty while lashing out at West over Ukraine war
• They counted the days until they could return to Ukraine. Now, they’re not sure they’ll go back
• Biden in Ukraine: See photos of president in Kyiv nearly one year after Russia’s invasion
