Russia's Vladimir Putin
rolling out the red carpet
for his,
quote, dear friend
Chinese leader Xi Jinping
greeting each other
for their second day of meetings
in Moscow.
Despite skepticism from the West
that the visit is more
about supporting
Russia and furthering
Beijing's own self-interests, Putin
and Xi signing an economic deal,
deepening their partnership,
and calling for an end
to actions that increase tensions
in the prolonged war in Ukraine.
Many of you, in your mind,
of course,
we did not ignore
the situation around Ukraine.
We believe that
many of the points on the peace plan
put forward by
China are consistent
with Russian approaches
and can be taken as the basis
of a peaceful settlement.
When the West and Kiev are ready for it.
But this readiness is
not observed on their side.
Since the
war began,
Russia has become
far more dependent on China.
China has been propping up
Russia's economy amid Western sanctions
by purchasing its energy,
replacing Western suppliers
in electronics, cars and aircraft,
and providing an alternative
to the US dollar.
That she is inviting Putin
to China this year
and told Putin
they share similar goals for noble goal.
Putin says Russia
has closely studied Beijing's
peace proposal for Ukraine,
a plan
that Washington says
would solidify
Russia's grip on occupied land.
China would not want to see Putin fail.
It would set a terrible example
for the Chinese system.
China and Russia
have a complicated history,
but their shared adversarial relationship
with Washington is driving them closer.
This is a marriage of convenience,
not of affection.
In Russia,
there's some cynicism
about Beijing's motives.
On a Russian state TV talk show,
this military pundit said
China can have only one ally,
China itself.
China can only have one set of interests,
pro-Chinese ones.
Chinese foreign policy
is utterly devoid of altruism, he wrote,
but Chinese state media is in overdrive,
touting the benefits of the Russia
China relationship.
And it's all positive
comments on China's heavily
censored social media.
This one says cooperation and win win.
The next one says Long live China.
Russia. Friendship.
Disagreements, if any, are censored
by meeting with Putin.
She wants to highlight
his role as a global statesman
that can offer an alternative
to the current world order.
But Jake, the real tangible
outcome of this meeting
is Beijing
strengthening ties with Russia
in ways that benefits itself.
These economic agreements
they've signed, it's likely
going to increase Russia's
reliance on China.
Now, China's
policy is a bit contradictory,
but it really boils down to supporting
Putin while publicly declared neutrality,
but also paying no price.
That's why the experts
I speak to say it's unlikely
that China would provide
the kind of lethal aid to Russia
that would trigger
secondary sanctions Jake.
All right, Selina Wang in Beijing,
thanks so much.
Meanwhile,
Japan's prime minister Fumio Kishida
made a surprise trip to Ukraine,
where he met
with Ukraine's president
Volodymyr Zelensky and visited
Bhutia, the key
suburb synonymous
with Russia's atrocities
against the Ukrainian people.
Because she
this trip
marks the first time
a Japanese prime
minister has visited an area
with ongoing fighting
since World War Two.
CNN's Ivan
Watson is live for us
in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
And Ivan, the timing of this visit
seems pretty, pretty important.
It does.
And it does not seem like
it's it's a coincidence
that you had the leader
of China visiting Moscow.
And then the same day
the Japanese prime minister visiting
Russia's enemy, the capital of Ukraine,
Kishida Laying flowers in Buka, where
there were discoveries of mass graves,
of people executed
with their hands tied behind their backs
after the Russian troops
withdrew
from that town on the outskirts of Kiev.
Japan signaling its commitment to Ukraine
last month,
it pledged
some $5.5 billion in assistance
to the Ukrainian government
and has said that
it speaks out strongly against Russia's,
as it puts it, aggression in to Ukraine.
In the meantime,
the Ukrainians
still watching this meeting
in Moscow closely.
The Ukrainian
president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky has come out with statements
about the suggestion of a cease fire made
by Putin and Xi.
Today, saying that
that nobody would be satisfied with that
right now,
going on to say that
that would simply freeze the conflict
and allow Russia
to regroup and attack again
sometime in the future.
He says
Ukraine has its own peace formula
and that probably involves
Russian troops withdrawing
from Ukrainian territory
and he wants to share that directly
with the Chinese leader.
We don't know when these two leaders
will talk.
And Ivan,
Ukraine and Russia are disputing
the details
of an attack in the Crimea
and town of John Coy.
That's where a train
carrying Russian caliber
cruise missiles was destroyed.
What are Ukrainian officials
saying about this attack?
Right.
I mean, we have seen amateur video
of some huge explosion last night.
The Ukrainians claim that they hit
a shipment of these caliber
cruise missiles.
We do not have independent
confirmation of that.
The Russians say, hey,
our air defense has shot down
some kind of an attack.
Somebody was injured.
They haven't said anything more
about whether or not
these missiles were hit.
In the meantime, tonight,
within the last couple of hours,
we've heard about missile
strikes on the southern
Ukrainian port city of Odessa.
The Ukrainian
say that they shot down
two of these cars,
59 missiles
that were launched by Russian warplanes.
But two more got through the air defenses
and have injured people.
We're still waiting to find out more
about the extent of that damage.
All right,
Ivan Watson in Kiev, Ukraine for us.
Thank you so much.