March 22, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have made a sweeping affirmation of their alignment across a host of issues — and shared mistrust of the United States — in a lengthy statement following talks between the two leaders in Moscow this week.

Their meeting, which took place under the shadow of Russia’s onslaught in Ukraine, left no question about Beijing’s commitment to developing its rapport with Moscow, despite Putin’s growing isolation on the global stage as its devastating war continues into its second year.

Here's five takeaways:

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Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has warned the United States that Moscow would take "countermeasures" against any further drone flights over part of the Black Sea following an incident last week in which a Russian jet intercepted a US drone, state media reported Wednesday.

Referring to the incident last week, he said the US drone "was in a zone where we introduced a special regime associated with conducting military exercises.”

Russia's security would be ensured “by all means available,” he added, and “no American drones, whether reconnaissance, strike, strategic or any other kind,” could “shake their determination.” 

Some background: CNN reported Tuesday that the US is flying surveillance drones further south above the Black Sea after a Russian jet collided with a US drone last week, citing two US officials.

The drone flights have remained in international airspace, but since the collision between one of the Russian jets and the MQ-9 Reaper drone last Tuesday, the US has moved its drone flights further away from airspace surrounding the Crimean peninsula and eastern portions of the Black Sea.

One of the officials said the routes are part of an effort “to avoid being too provocative,” as the Biden administration remains careful to avoid an incident that could potentially escalate into a direct conflict between US and Russian forces.

The official said the drone flights would continue this way “for the time being,” but added there is already “an appetite” to return to the routes closer to Russian-held territory. The officials also said Russia may try to unilaterally declare a broader closure of airspace around southern and eastern Ukraine in an attempt to force US drone flights further out. 

Three people were killed in the Kyiv region overnight following a wave of Russian attacks with Iran-made Shahed drones, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Andrii Niebytov, the Kyiv region's police chief, said seven others were injured when a drone struck a dormitory building in the town of Rzhyshchiv.

Police and emergency services evacuated more than 200 people and more than 20 were taken to the hospital — but five people remain missing, Niebytov said.

Four people may be trapped under the rubble, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said.

A total of 21 drones were launched against Ukraine from the north shortly before midnight local time on Tuesday, 16 of which were shot down, according to the Ukrainian air force.

Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration, said eight drones were shot down near the capital, where an air alert was in force for more than four hours.

In the Zhytomyr region to the west of Kyiv, three drones were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, according to the local military administration.

A drone attack was “thwarted” in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol early on Wednesday, according to a local Russia-backed official.

CNN could not independently verify Razvozhaev’s claim.

Sevastopol is the largest city in the annexed Crimean peninsula and home to Russia's Black Sea fleet. Some of Russia’s most important warships have been docked there, including surface ships equipped with cruise missiles.

The US has previously accused Russia of using cruise missiles fired from ships in the Black Sea to hit civilian targets in Ukraine. 

Train strike: The report Tuesday comes after Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said late Monday that a strike destroyed Russian “Kalibr” cruise missiles that were being transported by train in the Crimean town of Dzhankoi.

Ukrainian authorities did not directly claim responsibility for that strike but said it serves to further “demilitarize Russia and prepare the Crimean peninsula for de-occupation.”

Japan will provide $30 million to help Ukraine acquire non-lethal equipment, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Kishida made the announcement Tuesday at a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his surprise visit to Kyiv, NHK reported. 

Kishida's unexpected trip to Ukraine Tuesday was announced as Chinese leader Xi Jinping held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

His visit was the first from a Japanese prime minister to a country or region with ongoing fighting since World War II, according to NHK. It was also the first visit to Ukraine by an Asian member of the G7 grouping and the first by a United States ally in the region.

The dual visits by Kishida and Xi underscore deep divisions in northeast Asia toward the war in Ukraine, with Japan pledging substantial aid for Kyiv, while China remains a lone voice supporting an increasingly isolated Putin — now a global pariah and suspected war criminal.

Kishida is scheduled to travel to Poland on Wednesday.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has departed Russia and is heading back to China, according to Chinese state media outlet CCTV. 

It brings an end to a three-day state visit in which the Chinese leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to deepen ties in a show of unity that has heightened concerns Beijing will provide cover for the Kremlin's war in Ukraine.

As two autocrats traded tributes over a feast of quail, venison, Siberian white salmon and pomegranate sorbet, China and Russia seemed to conjure the anti-Western compact the US has long feared.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit this week to his friend, President Vladimir Putin, came at a critical moment of Russia’s quagmire war in Ukraine and of Beijing’s emergence as a great power whose influence now stretches far beyond Asia.

The entire visit has been refracted through a prism of both nations’ mutual antagonism toward the United States. And at every step, Washington, watching hawkishly from the sidelines, poured scorn on the idea of China as a peacemaker in Ukraine, accusing Xi of offering diplomatic cover to a thuggish Russian leader who was just cited for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

But whether China and Russia have truly forged the kind of united anti-US front long dreaded by Washington’s foreign policy professionals seems doubtful.

Still, the United States clearly now has a serious foreign policy challenge on its hands. The US is simultaneously gearing up for what many experts warn could become a Cold War with China and waging a proxy fight in Ukraine with its foe in the 20th century’s version of that showdown. And China and Russia, together, have more capacity to frustrate American goals in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Xi and Putin are united on a core foreign policy priority — discrediting and even dismantling a world order that they believe is built on Western hypocrisy and denies them due respect as great global powers. This resentment has festered in Putin’s mind ever since the Soviet Union collapsed, and he has tried for years to reshape the international system. But according to Biden’s national security strategy, China is the only US competitor with “the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to” reshape that order.

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The Ukrainian soldiers waved and honked their horns as they drove along a dirt road at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, moving their vehicles into position to defend against a hypothetical Russian missile barrage.

These were not ordinary trucks, however. The Ukrainians were manning a US Patriot air defense system, which 65 Ukrainian soldiers have been training on intensively for 10 weeks, instructed by US Army trainers at the base.

CNN was invited to witness the training on Tuesday, just days ahead of the Ukrainians’ expected graduation from the expedited course. The training at Fort Sill is the only location on US soil where the US is instructing the Ukrainians on US weapons systems. But video and photographs of the training were prohibited, to protect the identities of the Ukrainians who will be heading home to defend their country against Russian forces within the next month.

The Ukrainians have excelled, officials said. They learned the basics of the Patriot system so quickly that they were given extra, intensive training rarely afforded to their American counterparts completing the same course, the officials added.

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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.”