Vladimir Putin arrives in China for security summit – Ukraine war live

The Guardian’s Russian affairs reporter, Pjotr Sauer, has written a piece about Putin’s trip and what it may mean for the war in Ukraine. Here is an extract of his story:

Key on the agenda, analysts say, will be for Putin and Xi to align their positions on the war in Ukraine amid US efforts to end the fighting. “It is an important time for them to talk about where the war is headed and how likely it is to be stopped in the near future,” said Alexander Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre.

Gabuev said Moscow wanted to know whether it could expect any further assistance from China and how Beijing would respond if the US were to ask it to put pressure on Russia to end the fighting…

China has emerged as an economic lifeline for Russia during the war in Ukraine, and Kyiv has been increasingly outspoken about what it says is China’s direct aiding of Moscow’s war effort.

Bilateral trade climbed to more than $240bn last year, two-thirds higher than before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Beijing is now the leading buyer of Russian oil and coal and will shortly surpass Europe as Moscow’s main market for natural gas…

The talks are also likely to touch on deepening military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow, a development that has alarmed western governments.

While China has stopped short of providing direct military aid, US officials say Beijing has supplied about 70% of the machine tools and 90% of the semiconductors Russia needs to rebuild its war machine. In return, China is believed to be receiving assistance in sensitive defence technologies.

China claims it is a neutral mediator in the war in Ukraine, but the two countries have pulled closer together since the start of the invasion.

Vladimir Putin and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi are among the more than 20 world leaders attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which is being held in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin.

The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus – with 16 more countries affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners”. The China and Russia-led regional security grouping is trying to rebalance global power in their favour and away from the US.

Putin, who is wanted for war crimes by the international criminal court, arrived in Tianjin on Sunday to a red carpet welcome and warm greetings from top-ranking city officials.

During his trip, which is expected to stretch to close to a week, the Russian president will hold talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping, his close ally, and watch Beijing’s Victory Day military parade marking 80 years since Japan’s defeat in the second world war, where Putin is due to be the star guest alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and leaders of Iran and Cuba.

Kim and Putin signed a mutual defence pact last year, and North Korea confirmed this April that it had deployed soldiers to the frontline in Ukraine to fight alongside Russian troops.

Putin has turned to Beijing for trade and political support since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched in February 2022. China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.

Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Ukraine’s armed forces said on Sunday that Russian forces failed to gain full control of any major Ukrainian city over the summer.

The chief of Russia’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, said on Saturday that since March Russia had captured more than 3,500 square km (1,351 square miles) of territory in Ukraine and taken control of 149 villages.

“Despite Gerasimov’s claims, Russian forces have not gained full control over any major city,” the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said. “The figures presented by the occupiers regarding captured territories and settlements are grossly exaggerated.”

We have not yet been able to independently verify any of these claims. Ukraine acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that Russia’s army had entered the Dnipropetrovsk region, a central administrative area previously spared from intense fighting.

Russian forces have slowly gained ground in costly battles for largely devastated areas in eastern and southern Ukraine, normally with few inhabitants or intact buildings left.

Russia launched a sweeping attack across Ukraine overnight on Saturday, with one person killed and 24 injured, including three children, when a five-storey residential building was hit in Zaporizhzhia, according to officials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for “tougher” western sanctions on Russia as he says Vladimir Putin’s attacks shows he is not at all interested in trying to pursue peace.