March 22, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

The deepening relationship between China and Russia was due in large part to their mutual interest in challenging the US' global influence, John Kirby, National Security Council spokesperson, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour Tuesday. 

Kirby's remarks come as Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin forge closer ties in Moscow in a show of unity that has heightened Western concerns that Beijing will provide cover for Russia's war in Ukraine.

In a joint statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, Xi and Putin said their partnership is in the “fundamental interests” of both countries, adding that “Russia needs a prosperous and stable China, and China needs a strong and successful Russia.”

The United States defers to Ukraine’s leadership in its prioritization of the hard-fought battle for Bakhmut, and will continue to ensure the country's president has “what he needs, wherever he chooses to fight, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday.

Asked by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour whether Kyiv was spending too much time in the fight for Bakhmut, Kirby said Ukrainians are still "bravely fighting" in the eastern city and the area is "very vicious."

Battles to come: Ukraine is preparing to launch a spring offensive against Russian forces, built largely around the more powerful and more advanced systems Western countries have agreed to send, including tanks and other armored vehicles.

Kirby said the coming weeks would be "critical," in the war and the US expected Russian President Vladimir Putin would "try to mount another offensive and maybe along many different vectors."

"We have got to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make sure Ukraine is ready for that," he said.

Kirby said the US wants to ensure Ukrainians can defend themselves against any renewed Russian offensive while also having the flexibility to "conduct offensive operations of their own at a time and place and a size and a scale of their choosing."

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed "serious concerns" about the AUKUS security pact and NATO, according to a joint statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday following talks between the two leaders in Moscow.

The joint statement said China and Russia urged AUKUS members Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States to “strictly fulfill their obligations not to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.”

The multi-decade AUKUS deal aims to counter China’s rapid military expansion. Under the plan, the partners will build a combined fleet of elite nuclear-powered submarines using technology, labor and funding from all three countries, creating a more formidable force in the Indo-Pacific than any of them could achieve alone.

In the joint statement, Xi and Putin also said their partnership is in the “fundamental interests” of both countries, adding that “Russia needs a prosperous and stable China, and China needs a strong and successful Russia.”

Leaders on NATO: Xi and Putin also expressed serious concerns about NATO’s “continuous strengthening of military-security ties with Asia-Pacific countries” and said they “oppose external military forces undermining regional peace and stability.”

A year after Russia invaded Ukraine, Xi's backing of Putin has opened the door for the US and partners in the Pacific to shore up sometimes frayed relationships to the detriment of Beijing.

In the past few months alone, Japan has pledged to double defense spending and acquire long-range weapons from the US; South Korea has acknowledged that stability in the Taiwan Strait is essential to its security; the Philippines has announced new US base access rights and is talking about joint patrols of the South China Sea with Australia, Japan and the United States.

The White House rejected China’s claim to hold an impartial position in the war in Ukraine following a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Moscow.

Earlier, Xi said Beijing held an impartial position in the war after lengthy talks with Putin in Moscow.

The United States held a skeptical view of the summit, particularly China’s stated goal of acting as a peacemaker. Kirby said if China wanted to play a constructive role, it would use its influence to urge Russia to end the war.

Biden “wants to keep the lines of communication open with China” and will speak with Xi “at the appropriate time,” Kirby said.

US officials are still digesting the language of the joint statement released following the Xi-Putin meeting, but Kirby said there was little optimism at the summit’s conclusions.

“We haven't seen anything that they've said, they put forward, that gives us hope that this war is going to end anytime soon,” he said.

Talks between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin continued Tuesday as Western leaders closely monitored day two of Xi's three-day Moscow visit.

Here's what happened Tuesday:

Andriy Yermak, head of the Presidential Office in Ukraine, said three people were injured in a Russian missile attack on the Odesa region on Tuesday.

"Russians struck Odesa with four missiles. Kh-59, according to preliminary reports," Yermak posted on Telegram. "Two missiles have been intercepted by air defense. Two more hit the city, unfortunately."

He said a three-story building was damaged on the premises of a monastery.

Yurii Kruk, head of the Odesa district military administration said "the enemy" carried out a rocket strike in the region with SU-35 fighters launching missiles from the sea.

Unofficial social media reports indicate the missiles were aimed at an airfield in the region.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said he believes Russia is treating children like “spoils of war."

Last week, the ICC announced arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their roles in allegedly illegally deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.

The Rome Statute of the Geneva Conventions makes it clear "you can’t deport civilians to a foreign country,” Khan said.

Moscow has rejected the warrants, with a foreign ministry spokesperson previously saying “Russia is not a member of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it."

The prosecutor said Russia does not seem to be denying the allegations against it but rather wearing it “like a badge of honor."

“Children are not the property of a country to be dispatched based on politics or some ideological motives. It needs to be regulated by law, and that law needs to be enforced,” Khan said. 

He said the ICC has reached out to Russia, but has not heard back.

A Ukrainian army major in the Bakhmut area says the situation remains extremely difficult, but he believes the Russians are losing their "offensive potential."

Maksym Zhorin said on his Telegram channel that "the main task for the Ukrainian army is to hold the connection corridor, which allows for the supply and evacuation of the wounded."

"Therefore the fighting around this corridor, in the area of Ivankivske and Bohdanivka, is the most difficult," he said.

The two villages sit on routes west from Bakhmut toward the city of Kostiantynivka.

US Patriot missile defense systems and Abram tanks are set to be deployed to Ukraine faster than originally planned, US defense officials said on Tuesday.

A group of 65 Ukrainian soldiers will complete their training on the systems at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in the coming days, the defense officials said.

The troops will then move on to Europe for additional training on the two Patriot systems — one American and one built by the Germans and Dutch — that will be deployed to Ukraine in the coming weeks, the officials told reporters at Fort Sill.

The announcement of the acceleration of Patriot deployments came shortly after it was reported that the US will accelerate the time it takes to ship Abrams tanks to Ukraine by sending older M1-A1 models of America’s main battle tank instead of the more modern version of the tank, according to two US officials.

The decision to speed up the delivery of tanks and Patriots comes as Ukraine is preparing to launch a spring offensive against Russian forces, built largely around the more powerful and more advanced systems Western countries have agreed to send, including tanks and other armored vehicles.

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