‘It’s Going Quite Well,’ Putin Tells Xi – Ukraine at War Update for May 17

As Russian President Vladimir Putin made friendly advances to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the start of his two-day state visit to Beijing on Thursday, the Russian autocrat described the progress of his invasion of Ukraine, saying, it’s “underway in all directions and is going quite well.”

Putin promised to give Xi a battlefield update in private.

On Thursday, the Chinese and Russian delegations conducted around 45 minutes of talks, a conference that Putin told the press had been “warm and comradely.”

Putin insisted that both countries were working for a “multipolar world,” rather than one dominated by NATO, and said that many of the two countries’ approaches to international public policy were similar.

While Moscow has squared off with Ukraine’s Western allies over its more than two-year invasion, so has China, verbally, on the continuing dispute over the sovereignty of Taiwan.

Part of Washington’s recent $95.3 billion international aid package included not only about $61 billion for Ukraine against the Russian full-scale invasion but also about $8 billion for its Indo-Pacific interests, translating to deterrence against any forthcoming aggression against Taiwan by China, which considers the island nation part of its territory.

Specifically, as part of the bill that ultimately passed both chambers of Congress and the White House to become law, the US House Representatives attached a provision that allowed the Department of Defense not only to provide Taipei with weapons but also to provide it with billions more dollars in the future for the purchase of advanced military technology.

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ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 2, 2024

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Moscow accuses Ukraine of civilian deaths in Donetsk and across Russian border

As Ukrainian authorities now have evacuated nearly 9,000 people from the country’s border with Russia due to hostilities there, Moscow-installed leadership in the occupied border region of Donetsk claimed on Thursday that Ukrainian attacks killed four civilian women there, while Russian authorities in the region of Belgorod lamented the deaths of two people driving along the two-country border.

Spokespersons in the occupied Donetsk area posted on Telegram that, “Four women born in 1986, 1980, 1961 and 1952 were killed on Petrovsky Street near public transport stop School No. 106.” It was also reported by the Kremlin that the attack wounded two others, a young girl and a man in his thirties.

The head of the region’s Moscow-backed administration, Denis Pushilin, blamed the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU).

Meanwhile, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, claimed early on Friday that a Ukrainian drone in that same warzone struck a family driving in a village along the border area, killing a mother and her four-year-old child.

“As a result of the explosion, the woman died on the spot from her wounds,” Gladkov said. “The child was in critical condition. Doctors [have done] everything possible to save him.”

Zelensky’s call with Polish PM focuses on new Russian targets on European energy sources

On a call with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that one of Russia’s targets now is the gas infrastructure in western Ukraine, putting some of Eastern Europe’s remaining energy sources under threat.

 “One of Russia’s targets right now is our gas infrastructure in the west of Ukraine. Russia’s success in targeting it [could threaten] Europe’s entire energy security. We must find a way to counter this challenge together,” Zelensky posted to social media.

Zelensky also said he briefed Tusk on his recent visit to the besieged city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest, and once again pleaded for more air defenses.

“We also directed our teams to begin working on the bilateral security agreement text right away. Such an agreement between historical partners must be as ambitious as possible,” Zelensky continued on Twitter in his call description.

Poland has provided Ukraine with almost $4 billion in military aid since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and both the US and Germany have pledged additional Patriot missile defense systems since the new Russian onslaught along the country’s northeastern border.