Russia-Ukraine WarAs Xi and Putin Meet, U.S. Assails ‘Diplomatic Cover’ for Crimes

Three days after the International Criminal Court accused President Vladimir Putin of Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, President Xi Jinping of China arrived in Moscow for a state visit.

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Chinese state media showed a military band greeting Xi Jinping.CreditCredit...Anatoliy Zhdanov/Kommersant Photo, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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Here’s what to know about Xi’s visit to Russia.

Xi Jinping, China’s leader, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met face-to-face on Monday in Moscow, where Mr. Xi hailed the two nations as “good neighbors and reliable partners” during a state visit that has been closely watched by Kyiv and its Western allies.

While Chinese officials have attempted to cast Mr. Xi as a mediator who can broker a peaceful resolution in Ukraine, officials in the United States have been wary of China’s involvement. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who previously warned that Beijing could provide weapons to Russia, said on Monday that the visit amounted to “diplomatic cover” for Russian war crimes.

Three days after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Mr. Putin’s arrest, the Russian leader hosted Mr. Xi for more than four hours at the Kremlin. According to a summary of their meeting from Xinhua, China’s official news agency, Mr. Xi said his country was “willing to continue playing a constructive role in promoting a political settlement of the Ukraine issue.”

Kyiv and its allies have brushed off the Chinese proposal. Mr. Blinken said on Monday that any plan that did not include the removal of Russian forces from Ukraine “would recognize Russia’s attempts to seize a sovereign neighbor’s territory by force.”

Here are the latest developments:

  • Ukrainian officials made clear on Monday that they considered the idea of peace talks at the moment to be preposterous. “The first and main point is the capitulation or withdrawal of the Russian occupation troops,” Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a statement.

  • In Brussels, European Union defense and foreign ministers agreed to a plan to provide Ukraine with more artillery ammunition, which is badly needed as Kyiv prepares for an expected counteroffensive in the spring.

  • John Kirby, a White House spokesman, said there is no certainty about whether China will send arms to Russia as part of an alliance he called a “marriage of convenience.” Arming the Russian military, he added, would run counter to Mr. Xi’s public pronouncements that the Chinese wanted a “peaceful” end to the invasion.

  • Before hosting China’s leader, Mr. Putin made a point of showing that he was in control, traveling to Russian occupied territory of Ukraine for the first time since the invasion began. He made weekend visits to Crimea and the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which Russia captured after largely destroying it last year.

Carly OlsonIvan Nechepurenko
March 20, 2023, 6:59 p.m. ET

Ukraine says an explosion in Crimea destroyed Russian cruise missiles.

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A damaged Kalibr missile used by the Russian Army in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine in October.Credit...Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

An explosion hit the town of Dzhankoi in Russian-occupied Crimea on Monday, and Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said the blast had destroyed Russian Kalibr cruise missiles that were being transported by rail.

Kremlin-appointed authorities in Crimea denied the claim, saying that drones, which had been responsible for the blast, were “aimed at civilian objects.”

“One was shot down over the Dzhankoi technical school and fell between the academic building and the dormitory,” Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser to the Russia-appointed head of Crimea wrote on the social messaging app Telegram. “There were no military facilities nearby.”

Sergei Aksyonov, the Kremlin-installed leader of Crimea, said that debris from the explosion had damaged a house and a shop, leaving one person injured.

Dzhankoi, a logistics node in northern Crimea and home to an important Russian airfield, is about 150 miles from the front line in southern Ukraine and is a strategically vulnerable point for Russian forces. Weapons and supplies for Russian forces travel along a railway that runs through the town and links up with the Kerch Strait bridge that connects the peninsula with the Russian mainland. That bridge was damaged in an attack last fall.

The Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia illegally seized in 2014, is a crucial military base and staging ground for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian warships in the Black Sea have fired cruise missiles at Ukrainian targets that are sometimes hundreds of miles away, hitting towns and cities and damaging the country’s energy infrastructure.

After a major Russian barrage against Ukraine last December, Moscow’s Defense Ministry released a picture showing a cruise missile and a message: “Kalibrs will never run out.”

Ukraine’s military did not claim responsibility for the explosion in Dzhankoi. Although the government has not acknowledged it publicly, Ukraine has struck repeatedly at military targets in Crimea and other Russian-occupied territory, and at infrastructure such as the Kerch Strait bridge.

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Chris Buckley
March 20, 2023, 6:06 p.m. ET

A Chinese summary of the Xi-Putin meeting doesn’t suggest any breakthroughs.

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A photograph released by the Russian state news media showing Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia after their talks at the Kremlin on Monday.Credit...Grigory Sysoyev/Sputnik, via Associated Press

Talks in Moscow on Monday between President Xi Jinping of China and President Vladimir V. Putin covered their plans to strengthen bilateral relations and also the war in Ukraine, according to an official Chinese summary of the meeting that gave no sign that any breakthrough had been reached over the fighting.

Citing the broadly worded framework for peace talks that China issued last month, Mr. Xi told his Russian counterpart that such negotiations were the only viable way of ending the yearlong war, according to a summary of their meeting released by Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.

“The majority of countries support easing tensions, advocate peace negotiations and oppose pouring oil on the fire,” Mr. Xi told Mr. Putin, according to the Chinese summary. “Historically, conflicts must finally be settled through dialogue and negotiations.”

Mr. Putin said he had studied China’s document calling for peace talks and was open to negotiations, according to the summary. But it gave no signs that Mr. Putin had in mind any of the concessions that Ukraine has said must be a precondition for talks, including the withdrawal of Russian troops. Ukraine has also ruled out giving up territory in exchange for peace.

The two leaders have met about 40 times for official talks since Mr. Xi became China’s leader in 2012. And regardless of the continued fighting in Ukraine, Mr. Xi made it clear that he remained committed to building a strong relationship with Russia — and with Mr. Putin — as an invaluable partner in countering American global influence.

“Consolidating and developing Chinese-Russian relations is a strategic choice that China has made in the light of its own fundamental interests and the broad trends of global development,” Mr. Xi said.

Mr. X’s trip to Russia was his first state trip since he started his unprecedented third term as president this month, and Russia was his first foreign visit after he first became president a decade ago. He effectively endorsed yet another term for Mr. Putin, with a presidential election set for next year — although Mr. Putin has not announced his candidacy, and a Kremlin spokesman had denied that Mr. Xi had any inside information.

“I’m sure that the Russian people will certainly continue firmly supporting you,” Mr. Xi told Mr. Putin, according to Xinhua.

Carly Olson
March 20, 2023, 4:49 p.m. ET

The nightly address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky focused on the European agreement to provide Ukraine's forces with more artillery ammunition and the $350 million U.S. military aid package announced today. He did not mention China at all.

Christopher Buckley
March 20, 2023, 4:36 p.m. ET

China says that Xi and Putin discussed Ukraine in talks on Monday, but the summary of their meeting from Xinhua, China’s official news agency, gave no signs of a breakthrough. “China is willing to continue playing a constructive role in promoting a political settlement of the Ukraine issue,” Xi told Putin, according to the summary.

Christopher Buckley
March 20, 2023, 4:48 p.m. ET

Xi added that he was “sure that the Russian people will certainly continue firmly supporting you,” according to Xinhua.

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Elian Peltier
March 20, 2023, 3:59 p.m. ET

Xi condemns killings in a part of Africa where Russian and Chinese interests are competing.

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A statue of Russian soldiers at the corner in central Bangui, Central African Republic, in November.Credit...Mauricio Lima for The New York Times

Shortly before landing in Moscow on Monday, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, condemned the killing of nine Chinese nationals a day earlier at a gold mine in the Central African Republic, where tensions have flared between Chinese and Russian interests.

Among competing claims about who was responsible — including one that blamed the Kremlin-backed Wagner mercenary group — Mr. Xi urged the authorities of the Central African Republic to bring the perpetrators to justice, according to a statement released by the Chinese foreign ministry. The ministry said two other Chinese nationals had been “severely injured” and called on its citizens to leave other areas of the country for the capital, Bangui, the only place there it does not consider high-risk.

The state prosecutor’s office told the Agence-France Presse news agency on Monday that an investigation had been opened into the killing.

At least one local official blamed a rebel group for the killings, which occurred early Sunday, when masked assailants attacked a mining site run by a Chinese firm. But the Coalition of Patriots for Change, an alliance of rebel groups trying to oust the pro-Kremlin president, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, denied any involvement and instead blamed Wagner, the fighting force founded by an oligarch close to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, which is also fighting in Ukraine.

Two Western officials based in Bangui said that while the killings might have been carried out by rebels, it was also likely that Wagner operatives were behind them.

Russian mercenaries have been operating since 2018 in the Central African Republic, one of the world’s poorest countries despite its vast reserves of gold and diamonds, which has been plagued by bitter internal conflict since 2013. Although Wagner operatives have helped the country’s military regain control of most of the country, they have done so at the expense of widespread abuses against civilians.

From beer to gold to timber, they have also extended their grip on the country’s economy.

There has been increased friction in recent months between Chinese companies that obtained mining concessions in the center of the country and companies affiliated with the Wagner group, which controls a sprawling gold mine nearby called Ndassima.

The Western officials, both speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media, said that Wagner operatives had brought back the bodies of the nine Chinese nationals to Bangui. The nine men were shot, which the officials said did not correspond to methods employed by the rebel groups.

One of the officials said the C.P.C. had kidnapped at least one Chinese national for money over the past year. “They go for ransoms and the Chinese government pays,” the official said about the rebels. “But they don’t kill.”

A C.P.C. spokesman, Aboubakar Siddick Ali, said in a telephone interview that the killing bore the methods of the Wagner group. According to one of the Western officials, the victims were shot at close range.

“They want to put the blame on the C.P.C., but our goal isn’t to assassinate the Chinese,” the spokesman said, stressing that the group was focused on toppling Mr. Touadéra’s government.

In a statement, Evariste Ngamana, the vice president of the Central African Republic’s national assembly, accused “foreign mercenaries” affiliated with powers that “for centuries exercised violence in our country” of being behind the killing. But the statement from Mr. Ngamana, a politician known to be close to Russia, appeared to be a veiled reference to France, the former colonial power that until last year had troops positioned in the Central African Republic.

Katie RogersEdward Wong
March 20, 2023, 3:56 p.m. ET

There is no certainty that China will send arms to Russia, the White House says.

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John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman, at a news briefing in Washington on Monday.Credit...Pool photo by Jim Lo Scalzo

U.S. officials are not certain that Beijing will provide weapons to Moscow to further the Russian invasion of Ukraine, John Kirby, a White House spokesman, told reporters on Monday, weeks after Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken had warned of the possibility.

Mr. Kirby’s statement came as the leaders of China and Russia met in Moscow amid concern that China could decide to abandon its peacemaker stance on the invasion of Ukraine and arm Russia’s military.

“We’ll see what they come out of this meeting talking about,” Mr. Kirby said. “I mean, we don’t know if there’s going to be some sort of arrangement. I would just tell you that we still don’t believe that China has taken it off the table. We still don’t believe and haven’t seen any indication that they’re moving in that direction.”

Mr. Kirby, seeking to downplay the significance of the Moscow meeting, called the Russian-Chinese alliance a “marriage of convenience” and referred to Russia as the “junior partner” in the relationship. He also said that arming the Russian military would run counter to President Xi Jinping’s public pronouncements that the Chinese wanted a “peaceful” end to the invasion.

In February, Mr. Blinken indicated that he had evidence that, behind the scenes, Beijing was tilting toward stronger support for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and “considering providing lethal support to Russia in its aggression against Ukraine.”

Such a step would be a major shift for China, which has defended its broader economic, energy and political ties with Moscow but not supplied it with weapons, ammunition or other battlefield equipment for the invasion. Mr. Blinken said he had warned his Chinese counterpart that there would be serious consequences were that to occur.

On Monday, Mr. Kirby said that the president wanted to have another conversation with Mr. Xi, but that it would come at the “most appropriate time.”

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Ivan Nechepurenko
March 20, 2023, 3:00 p.m. ET

The meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin lasted more than four hours, Russian news agencies reported. The two leaders also shared dinner before Mr. Putin walked Mr. Xi to his Chinese state limousine. The agenda for Tuesday includes a series of meetings with other officials from both countries, plus a grand dinner in one of the Kremlin's ceremonial halls.

Katie Rogers
March 20, 2023, 2:56 p.m. ET

John Kirby, a White House spokesman, told reporters on Monday that U.S. officials were not certain that Beijing would provide weapons to Moscow to further its invasion of Ukraine. “We’ll see what they come out of this meeting talking about,” he said of talks between China's leader, Xi Jinping, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Kirby said that President Biden wanted to have another conversation with Xi, but that it would come at the “most appropriate time.”

Tyler Hicks
March 20, 2023, 2:50 p.m. ET

Ukrainian soldiers from the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade defending the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Monday, firing rocket-propelled grenades and wielding machine guns in trenches against Russian invaders.

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Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
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Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Carly Olson
March 20, 2023, 2:39 p.m. ET

The White House authorizes $350 million in military aid for Ukraine.

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U.S. Marines working on a High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems or HIMARS, in Capas, Philippines, in October.Credit...Jam Sta Rosa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Biden administration on Monday approved a new $350 million package of military aid for Ukraine, U.S. officials said, a critical injection as Ukraine grapples with ammunition shortages and gears up for a spring offensive.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in a statement that the aid package would include more ammunition for howitzers and HIMARS rocket launchers — the American-made truck mounted rocket system — in addition to “ammunition for Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, HARM missiles, anti-tank weapons, riverine boats, and other equipment.”

This additional drawdown of military equipment from the Pentagon’s stockpiles is the 34th since last August, the Defense Department said in a statement. “To meet Ukraine’s evolving battlefield requirements, the United States will continue to work with its allies and partners to provide Ukraine with key capabilities,” the statement added.

The Biden administration has authorized drawdowns valued at approximately $19.95 billion since August 2021. In total, the United States. has committed more than $32.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning the war, according to the Defense Department.

Ammunition shortages are of particular concern for Ukraine’s military, which is using artillery shells faster than its Western allies can produce and supply them. This has, at times, led to firing far fewer artillery shells than they otherwise would.

Ukrainian troops have burned through equipment in Bakhmut, a city in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine that has been devastated by a grueling, monthslong battle. The military is using thousands of artillery shells a day as it tries to hold the city.

European Union foreign and defense ministers, too, on Monday agreed to spend up to 2 billion euros, or $2.14 billion, to provide Ukraine with artillery shells, ramp up Europe’s ammunition production and replenish their own national stocks. The details of the agreement are not yet finalized.

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Michael Crowley
March 20, 2023, 2:21 p.m. ET

Blinken says Xi’s visit amounts to ‘diplomatic cover’ for Russia’s war crimes.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressing reporters in Washington on Monday.Credit...Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Monday said that the visit to Moscow by China’s president days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, amounts to Beijing providing “diplomatic cover for Russia to continue to commit” war crimes.

President Xi Jinping’s visit “suggests that China feels no responsibility to hold the president accountable for the atrocities committed in Ukraine,” Mr. Blinken said of Mr. Putin.

Mr. Blinken made the remark during a longer criticism of the role China has sought to take in the war by offering a vague plan for peace talks that Kyiv and its Western allies have brushed off. He warned against any efforts to settle the conflict that might lead to an “unjust outcome” or offer Russia a chance to gain a tactical advantage in the fighting.

The briefing by Mr. Blinken in Washington was to mark the release of the State Department’s annual report on global human rights, which harshly condemned Russian forces for a litany of atrocities in Ukraine, including “credible reports of summary execution, torture, rape and indiscriminate attacks,” including ones targeting civilians.

The report also found that Russia’s government “engaged in the forced deportation of civilians from Ukraine to Russia,” including children — the subject of the charges against Mr. Putin that the international court announced on Friday.

The department also noted serious human rights problems within Ukraine, including arbitrary arrests and killings and inadequate steps to punish officials who committed misdeeds. But the report said the issues there were “not comparable to the scope of Russia’s abuses.”

Mr. Blinken said he expected China to use Mr. Xi’s trip to reiterate its past calls for a cease-fire under the 12-point peace proposal that China presented last month. But he expressed deep skepticism about the Chinese efforts, saying that a call for a cease-fire that does not include the removal of Russian forces from Ukraine “would effectively be supporting the ratification of Russian conquest,” he said. “It would recognize Russia’s attempts to seize a sovereign neighbor’s territory by force.”

He said that the U.S. would welcome any peace initiative for Ukraine “that advances a just and durable peace,” and supports elements of China’s proposal, including the protection of civilians and ensuring nuclear safety.

But the fundamental element of any plan to end the fighting must be “upholding the sovereignty and territory of Ukraine,” he said, adding, “Any plan that does not prioritize this critical principle is a stalling tactic at best, or is merely seeking to facilitate an unjust outcome.”

He said that Mr. Putin’s efforts to annex Ukrainian territory and his military’s ongoing attacks on civilians prove that Mr. Putin “has no interest” in such a peace.

Anton Troianovski
March 20, 2023, 2:00 p.m. ET

Xi refrains from mentioning Ukraine in Moscow, instead focusing on generalities.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday.Credit...Pool photo by Sergei Karpukhin

When he welcomed Xi Jinping to the Kremlin on Monday, President Vladimir V. Putin pledged that Russia would study the Chinese leader’s peace proposals for Ukraine “with respect.”

Delivering brief remarks for the cameras in response, Mr. Xi did not mention Ukraine at all.

Instead, according to the Russian translation of Mr. Xi’s remarks, he pointed out that Russia was the first country he had chosen to visit after being re-elected as the Chinese leader and vaguely declared that “our countries have many of the same or similar goals as we move forward.”

The public restraint by Mr. Xi was in keeping with his past practice. When he met with Mr. Putin in Uzbekistan last September, Mr. Xi also did not mention Ukraine in the public portion of their meeting, even though Mr. Putin acknowledged in that session that China had “questions and concerns” about the war.

Monday’s meeting was only the beginning of the three-day summit in Moscow, so it is too early to tell how much the two leaders will say about Ukraine. But the notable omission by Mr. Xi, and the very cursory mention of the war by Mr. Putin, indicated that for both leaders, Ukraine was only one element of their main focus this week: shoring up their countries’ overall relationship.

Early clues of where Ukraine stands on the agenda — at least the public agenda — could be gleaned from two coordinated newspaper articles that Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin published Monday morning in each other’s state media outlets: Both limited discussion of Ukraine to brief sections near the end.

Mr. Xi wrote that China was committed to peace in Ukraine but remained vague about just how that could be achieved, positing that “dialogue and consultations that are equal, reasonable and pragmatic can surely find a reasonable way forward for resolving the crisis.”

In his article, Mr. Putin gave no indication that Russia might give up some of the Ukrainian territory it has captured. Russia is open to a “political-diplomatic resolution” of the war, Mr. Putin wrote, reiterating his frequent position and saying that Ukraine and the West were uninterested in negotiations that would take “into account the prevailing geopolitical realities.”

While China has sought to cast Mr. Xi’s visit as a “trip for peace,” the proposal that Mr. Putin promised to review has little prospect of success. Ukraine’s government has ruled out ceding any territory in exchange for peace, pledging to recapture all of its land if Russia does not withdraw.

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Ana SwansonShashank Bengali
March 20, 2023, 1:30 p.m. ET

Here are some ways China has helped Russia’s economy weather the war.

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An oil tanker at a Russian port on the Black Sea. Last year, Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia to become China’s biggest supplier of crude.Credit...Associated Press

One year into the war in Ukraine, Western sanctions have left the Russian economy stagnant but not crippled. One major reason is that China, which was already one of Russia’s biggest trading partners, has significantly expanded the economic relationship of the two countries.

As Russia has lost direct access to Western consumer brands and imports of the most advanced technology, like semiconductors, Chinese companies have stepped in to provide Russia with cheaper alternatives. And as European nations have weaned themselves off Russian oil, China has bought more petroleum from Moscow, at discounted prices.

China has not supplied Russia with direct military aid for use in the war, according to U.S. officials, but it has increasingly provided an economic lifeline. Here is a look at some areas of the relationship:

Oil

The United States and Europe have sought to enforce a price cap on Russian oil to limit the Kremlin’s revenue from its most important export, but China and other key buyers, most importantly India, are still lining up. Last year, Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia to become China’s biggest supplier of crude.

In 2022, Russia managed to increase its oil output by 2 percent over the prior year and to boost oil export earnings by 20 percent, to $218 billion, according to estimates from the Russian government and the International Energy Agency, a group representing the world’s main energy consumers. With China’s Covid-related economic slowdown lifting, those purchases could rise further this year.

Consumer products

Samsung and Apple, previously major suppliers of cellphones to Russia, pulled out of that market after the invasion. Popular Chinese phone brands, like Xiaomi, Realme and Honor, have since taken off in Russia, according to Andrew S. David, the senior director of research and analysis at Silverado Policy Accelerator, a Washington nonprofit.

Shipments to Russia of other Chinese products, like passenger vehicles, have also rebounded. Overall Chinese exports to Russia reached a record high in December, helping to offset a steep drop in trade with Europe.

Semiconductors

Russia is unable to produce some precision missiles today because the country no longer has access to leading-edge semiconductors — a crucial component in smartphones, military technology and much more — that are made by the United States and its allies, including Taiwan and South Korea, American officials say.

China does not produce the most advanced types of semiconductors, and restrictions imposed by the United States last year are intended to stop Beijing from importing some of the most advanced types of chips and the equipment used to make them. But China has increased exports of its less advanced semiconductors to Russia, which experts say it needs for its weapons, even though Russia’s total chip imports remain below prewar levels.

Still, the Biden administration argues that China cannot fully make up for the chips Russia can no longer get from Ukraine’s allies. Nearly 40 percent of the chips Russia gets from China are defective, Wally Adeyemo, the deputy Treasury secretary, said last month.

‘Dual-use’ goods

The United States and its allies have not been able to stop all trade of so-called dual-use technologies that can be used in both military equipment and consumer goods. Tracking by research firms shows that trade in some goods that the Russian military effort could use has continued.

According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, an online data platform, shipments from China to Russia of aluminum oxide, a metal that can be used in armored vehicles, personal protective equipment and ballistic shields, soared from $16 million in 2021 to more than $400 million in 2022.

The group also found that shipments of minerals and chemicals used in the production of missile casings, bullets, explosives and propellants have also increased. And its data showed that China shipped $23 million worth of drones and $33 million worth of certain parts for aircraft and spacecraft to Russia last year, up from zero the year before.

Stanley Reed contributed reporting.

Marc Santora
March 20, 2023, 11:52 a.m. ET

Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine

To Ukraine, Xi’s push for peace seems at odds with the battlefield reality.

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Ukrainian armed forces firing at a Russian target in the Donetsk province earlier this month.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

KYIV, Ukraine — China’s leader, Xi Jinping, will discuss his peace proposal for Ukraine with President Vladimir V. Putin, according to the Kremlin, but Ukrainian officials made clear on Monday that they considered the idea of peace talks at the moment to be preposterous. Recent battlefield developments, too, suggest that any talk of a cessation of hostilities would be divorced from the reality on the front lines.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has said he would enter peace talks only if Mr. Putin withdraws his troops from Ukrainian territory — a precondition that a top Ukrainian official reiterated on Monday as Mr. Xi arrived in Moscow.

“The first and main point is the capitulation or withdrawal of the Russian occupation troops,” Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a statement.

And Mr. Zelensky late Sunday underscored that Ukrainians who have fought and bled for more than a year are in no mood to yield.

“Another week when every day, every night, the Russian army shelled Ukrainian cities, villages, and killed our people,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly address, emphasizing that Ukraine and its allies remained united in the goal of “expelling the occupier.”

While the front line has not shifted significantly in months, hundreds of soldiers from both sides are dying and being wounded daily. Officials in both Moscow and Kyiv claim their forces are bleeding the other side in an effort to gain an advantage in battles to come, once the weather warms.

The most intense fighting has been around the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where an unrelenting swirl of violence has persisted for months and it remains unclear who has the upper hand on any given day.

For weeks, as Russian forces threw wave after wave of fighters — including many ill-trained former prisoners — at Ukrainian defenses and slowly gained ground, speculation grew that Ukrainian forces might be forced to retreat from Bakhmut to avoid encirclement. But in recent days, Ukrainian officials have expressed more conviction that their soldiers could hold on.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military’s eastern command, said over the weekend that Russian forces were now “tactically unable” to complete an encirclement of the city.

Andriy Yermak, Mr. Zelensky’s top adviser, expressed even greater confidence on Monday, saying that Russia’s “plans to occupy Bakhmut are now failing.”

To the south, however, Russian forces appeared to be making “creeping gains” around the city of Avdiivka, Britain’s defense intelligence agency reported on Monday, saying that Russian advances were threatening supply lines needed for Ukraine’s defense there.

At the same time, the Ukrainian military high command warned that Russia was racing to send reinforcements to relaunch their assault on Vulhedar, the Ukrainian stronghold where Russian forces have been dealt repeated blows.

Ukraine’s costly defense against the relentless Russian onslaughts in eastern Ukraine over the winter has been waged with a singular goal: Biding time until Kyiv’s troops are ready to try blasting through Russian lines to retake the initiative in the war.

When that moment will come — and where they might choose to strike first — remains unknown outside the closed-circle of the Ukrainian military high command as they gauge where Russian forces might be weakest and most exhausted. Ukrainian officials have suggested that they are waiting for the delivery of more sophisticated weapons pledged by Western allies before launching the counteroffensive.

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Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 11:40 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

The Putin-Xi summit has generated one awkward moment. Speaking before a six-course meal at the Kremlin, Xi said he was “confident” that the Russian people would support Putin in presidential elections next year. However, the Russian leader has not yet announced his candidacy.

Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 11:44 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, tried to dissuade reporters from assuming Xi had inside knowledge about Putin's plans. “You heard him wrong, Xi Jinping is sure that in a year the Russians will support Vladimir Putin. And here one can only share Xi Jinping’s confidence,” Peskov told state TV.

Michael Crowley
March 20, 2023, 11:30 a.m. ET

The Biden administration is authorizing an additional $350 million package of military aid for Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in a statement. He said the assistance includes guided rockets, anti-tank weapons and other equipment.

Steven Erlanger
March 20, 2023, 10:50 a.m. ET

European officials agree to supply more artillery shells to Ukraine.

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Ukrainian armed forces loading a howitzer in the Donetsk region in May.Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

BRUSSELS — European Union foreign and defense ministers agreed on Monday to spend up to 2 billion euros, or $2.14 billion, to supply Ukraine with badly needed artillery shells, replenish their own national stocks and ramp up Europe’s ammunition production.

As is typical for the bloc and its 27 member states, the details of the agreement must still be worked out and questions remain about the speed of the response, a crucial matter as Ukraine prepares for a spring counteroffensive.

But the agreement nevertheless marks another step for the European Union in working collectively for Ukraine, and in an area — defense — that member countries largely keep as a national priority.

Josep Borrell Fontelles, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, hailed the agreement. “We are taking a key step toward delivering on our promises to provide Ukraine with more artillery ammunition,” he said on Twitter.

On Monday, 17 member states, plus Norway, also agreed to work with a Brussels institution, the European Defense Agency, on joint ammunition procurement, especially for the 155-millimeter artillery rounds Ukraine badly needs.

Germany’s defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said that Germany would also let other countries join in its contracts with German defense manufacturers since speed was of the essence. “Our goal has to be to ship a significant amount of munitions to Ukraine before the end of this year,” he said.

His Estonian counterpart, Hanno Pevkur, said, “There are many, many details still to solve, but for me, it is most important that we conclude these negotiations, and it shows me one thing: If there is a will, there is a way.”

But even one of the most forceful advocates for helping Ukraine, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis of Lithuania, has admitted that the target of one million rounds this year, originally proposed by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of Estonia, was aspirational. “It is possible that we might not be able to reach it,” he said.

With Ukraine using up artillery shells faster than the West can produce them, the Europeans are pushing ahead with a three-part program.

The first part, which is most urgent, involves pressing member states to send artillery shells from their own dwindling stocks to Ukraine, using €1 billion to reimburse them.

It remains unclear how many shells are available in E.U. stockpiles, since some member states have refused to divulge their holdings, partly for security reasons. And countries have been keen to preserve some of their own stocks in case the war suddenly escalates.

The new European money is meant to increase their willingness to part with those shells.

Kyiv’s primary need is for 155-millimeter shells to be used in Western guns. Ukraine says it wants 350,000 shells a month but arms manufacturers in the European Union can produce a total of only about 650,000 rounds of all types a year.

That is why the second part of the plan involves another €1 billion for arms manufacturers to accelerate the production of shells, both to replenish E.U. stocks and provide more for Ukraine. But that won’t be easy or quick: New contracts must be drawn up and signed, the now-rare raw materials to make explosives must be sourced and factories must be built.

Officials in Brussels want to start ordering ammunition collectively because they believe that larger orders are more attractive to manufacturers and can bring prices down. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and others have cited the example of Brussels buying Covid-19 vaccines in bulk.

Some countries, however, do not want to hand over that kind of power on defense issues to Brussels or believe that coalitions of member states with long experience in military contracts would be more efficient than the commission, which has not negotiated such contracts before.

There are split views, too, on what to buy: Some countries want to purchase only European-made ammunition, while others think that the need for speed should dictate buying off-the-shelf from wherever stocks can be found.

The third part of the plan is longer-term and centers on boosting Europe’s defense industry, but that would require billions more and remains vague.

So for now the immediate goal is to provide Ukraine with another one million 155-millimeter shells this year and sign new procurement contracts by the end of May, Mr. Borrell said.

Since the start of the war 13 months ago, Brussels has spent €450 million to reimburse members for supplying 350,000 shells to Ukraine.

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Marc Santora
March 20, 2023, 10:49 a.m. ET

Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine

The authorities will shorten the mandatory curfew in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, starting next week, an expression of confidence in the security of the city. The curfew will now be enforced from midnight until 5 a.m., Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, said in a statement.

Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 10:42 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Xi and Putin of Russia will have a six-course meal at the Kremlin today, according to a menu published by a state media journalist. It showed a seafood appetizer, Russian crepes with quail and mushrooms, fish soup and pomegranate sorbet. The main course will be fish with vegetables or venison with cherry sauce, followed by pavlova served for dessert, according to the journalist.

Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 10:21 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Xi arrives in Moscow to fanfare and a heavy police presence.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s motorcade in Moscow on Monday.Credit...Associated Press

MOSCOW — Military fanfare and a heavy police presence greeted Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, as he arrived in Moscow on Monday for his first state visit to Russia since 2019.

A red carpet was rolled out to meet Mr. Xi’s Air China plane when it landed at Vnukovo Airport shortly after midday. An honor guard played music, including the Russian national anthem, as Mr. Xi disembarked.

Images posted on social media showed a billboard in Chinese near the airport that read: “We warmly welcome the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Russia.”

Mr. Xi chose to stay at a Chinese state-owned five-star hotel in the north of the city, according to Russian news agencies. Situated about six miles north of the Kremlin, the Soluxe hotel features “the largest traditional Chinese park outside of China,” according to its website, with “all the plants, stones and construction materials brought directly from China.”

Russian state media showed Mr. Xi being met at the hotel by several dozen people waving the flags of China and Russia, along with a banner bearing the same inscription as the billboard.

Roads were blocked in the city center as Mr. Xi’s motorcade made its way to the Kremlin on Monday afternoon.

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Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 9:59 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Putin spoke briefly to the press ahead of an informal meeting with Xi. “China has made a tremendous leap forward over the past 10 years, we even envy you a little bit,” he said of Xi, adding that China takes a “fair and balanced position on the majority of international problems.”

Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 10:01 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

“We have thoroughly studied your proposals on Ukraine, we will discuss them,” he said, referring to Xi’s peace plan: “We are open to negotiations on Ukraine.” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has said he would enter peace talks only if Mr. Putin withdraws his troops from Ukrainian territory.

Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 9:43 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Xi’s motorcade has arrived at the entrance to the Kremlin. He was received by the commandant of the Kremlin, Sergei Udovenko, before his informal meeting with President Putin.

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Credit...Reuters
Daniel Victor
March 20, 2023, 9:23 a.m. ET

Besides China, Russia maintains warm relations with these countries.

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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, right, and President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus in Minsk, Belarus, in December.Credit...Pavel Bednyakov/Sputnik, via Reuters

The state visit by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to Russia highlights the close ties between the nations, a relationship that is increasingly crucial for Moscow as it is cut off from most of the West.

China is a critical trading partner for Russia, buying up much of its oil exports while selling large volumes of products used by Russian civilians and the military. It is one of a number of countries that have maintained good terms with Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine — some providing diplomatic or economic support, others military aid.

Here is a look at a few of them:

Belarus

Russia’s closest regional ally, Belarus became especially reliant on Moscow after it helped President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko crush antigovernment protests in 2020. Mr. Lukashenko allowed Russia to use his country as an initial staging ground to invade Ukraine last year, and Russia has used Belarusian territory to train and supply its troops.

India

A major buyer of crude oil, India has helped Moscow make up for the loss in sales to European countries that have sought to reduce their dependence on Russian oil. Friendly with both Ukraine and Russia, India has not condemned Russia’s invasion and has been seen as a potential peacemaker. Last week, a senior Indian official called on Europe to “find a solution” to the war, saying it was distracting from urgent issues facing the world’s poor.

Iran

Russia and Iran have edged closer, including by integrating their banking systems, as they try to work around Western sanctions that have thwarted both countries’ access to foreign capital. Tehran has also supplied military support, including exploding drones that Moscow has used to strike Ukrainian infrastructure, and U.S. officials have warned that the two countries were strengthening their military links into a “full-fledged defense partnership.”

North Korea

The United States has accused the reclusive government in Pyongyang of covertly sending millions of artillery shells and rockets to Russia, which North Korea denies. But North Korea has officially backed Russia’s invasion, blaming the United States for the conflict.

South Africa

Long friendly with Russia, South Africa has leaned into the alliance in the past year, provoking frustration from the United States and European nations. South Africa hosted military exercises involving Russia and China this year. Though it denies aiding the war, South Africa remains economically linked to Russia, and the United States has warned it against helping Moscow skirt sanctions.

Syria

Russia has had a strong military presence in Syria, helping President Bashar al-Assad stay in power, but has redeployed some of its troops there to Ukraine. Last week, Mr. al-Assad visited Moscow and emphasized his support for Russia’s invasion, using a meeting with Mr. Putin to parrot the Kremlin’s false line that Russian forces are fighting Ukrainian “Nazis.”

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Ivan Nechepurenko
March 20, 2023, 8:28 a.m. ET

Responding to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Putin, Russia announced that it had opened a criminal probe against one prosecutor and three judges of the I.C.C., a symbolic show of defiance likely aimed at the Russian public. The Russian Investigative Committee, the country’s equivalent to the F.B.I., said that international law provides heads of state with “absolute immunity from jurisdictions of foreign states.”

Zixu Wang
March 20, 2023, 8:12 a.m. ET

Chinese state media reported that Xi Jinping was accompanied to Moscow by senior officials including Wang Yi, China’s highest ranking diplomat; Foreign Minister Qin Gang; and Cai Qi, director of the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee.

Daniel Victor
March 20, 2023, 7:43 a.m. ET

After the Putin arrest warrant, China urges the I.C.C. to ‘avoid politicization and double standards.’

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Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Credit...Wu Hao/EPA, via Shutterstock

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the International Criminal Court should avoid “double standards,” its first response to the court’s move to issue an arrest warrant for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

The remarks from Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the ministry, came just before China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, landed in Moscow for a state visit.

On Friday, the I.C.C. accused Mr. Putin of war crimes and alleged that he bore individual criminal responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children since the invasion began last year. China, an increasingly crucial economic partner of Russia, has neither condemned Mr. Putin’s invasion nor supported it outright.

When asked at a briefing on Monday about the warrant, Mr. Wang did not refer explicitly to the charges.

“The International Criminal Court should uphold an objective and impartial stance, respect the immunity of heads of state from jurisdiction under international law, exercise its functions and powers prudently in accordance with the law, interpret and apply international law in good faith, and avoid politicization and double standards,” Mr. Wang said.

The court does not recognize immunity for a head of state in cases involving war crimes.

But Mr. Wang’s reference to “double standards” could be interpreted as a veiled swipe at the United States, which — like China and Russia — is not party to the treaty that established the I.C.C.’s authority.

The United States has long kept its distance from the court. In 2020, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on I.C.C. investigators looking into crimes against humanity by American forces in Afghanistan and at C.I.A. interrogation facilities abroad.

In 2020, the I.C.C. decided not to pursue an investigation into China’s mass detention of Muslims because the country is not a party to the court.

Zixu Wang contributed reporting.

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Marc Santora
March 20, 2023, 7:19 a.m. ET

Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine

With Xi and Putin expected to discuss Beijing’s peace plan, a Ukrainian official emphasized that any talks would be contingent on the complete restoration of Ukraine’s territory. “The first and main point is the capitulation or withdrawal of the Russian occupation troops,” Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a statement.

Chris Buckley
March 20, 2023, 6:57 a.m. ET

Though Xi and Putin espouse their friendship, the war has tested its limits.

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China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and President Vladimir Putin of Russia preparing food at an event in Vladivostok, Russia, in 2018. “President Putin is for me a best friend,” Mr. Xi declared in 2019.Credit...Pool photo by Sergei Bobylev

They have exchanged gifts such as hockey jerseys, ice cream, clay figurines and the “YotaPhone,” Russia’s failed effort at a smartphone. They have celebrated each other’s birthdays with cake and toasts, and awarded each other medals. They are two stern autocrats who treat each other — at least for the sake of the cameras — like old chums.

Since their first presidential summit 10 years ago, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia have said that they have developed a personal friendship that reflects the strong bond that their countries have forged in the face of Western animosity. Their bonhomie, they suggest, is rooted in their similar views on the world.

Mr. Xi, 69, and Mr. Putin, 70, were born about 8 months apart, and came of political age when Soviet Communism was collapsing, an event that both men have lamented. They both see the United States as a political threat dedicated to containing their countries and also undermining their rule.

Both leaders have signaled that their bond will only be strengthened by Mr. Xi’s three-day state visit to Russia starting on Monday.

“For years now I have maintained a close working relationship with President Putin,” Mr. Xi wrote in an article that was published in Russian media and in the People’s Daily, the main newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party. He noted that with this meeting they will have met 40 times — in person or by videoconference — since he became president in 2013.

Mr. Putin was even more buoyant in an article that was published by the People’s Daily:

“For us, true friends are like our brothers,” Mr. Putin wrote, noting that their meetings sometimes involved informal discussions in which they — at least figuratively — took off their ties.

Some foreign policy experts have been skeptical about the two autocrats’ declarations of personal warmth, arguing that both leaders are hardheaded realists. Mr. Xi put on a similar show of solicitous friendship for President Trump, until relations between China and the United States soured. But there seems little doubt that both Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin want to show the world that the China-Russia relationship is undergirded by their personal commitment.

In 2019, Mr. Putin presented Mr. Xi with a large cake for his birthday when they met in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. “Thank you very much for the attention you are giving to the development of our interstate relations. I am glad that I have a friend like you,” Mr. Putin told Mr. Xi.

When Mr. Xi visited Russia that year, the Chinese leader had declared: “President Putin is for me a best friend.”

Even so, Mr. Xi’s display of solidarity with Mr. Putin may disguise hard calculations about what support he wants to give Russia while it struggles in Ukraine.

Last month, Biden administration officials accused China of considering sending “lethal support” to help Russian forces in Ukraine. Officials in Beijing have denied sending any such support, and China has tried to avoid getting caught in Western sanctions over its trade with Russia.

Last year, Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin declared a “no-limits friendship” between China and Russia, in a joint statement issued three weeks before Mr. Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. In the article published ahead of this latest visit, Mr. Xi did not revive that language of boundless friendship.

Anton Troianovski
March 20, 2023, 6:52 a.m. ET

While there was some reporting in Russian media that Putin might meet Xi at the airport, it appears that the Russian president stuck with his typical practice and did not take the extra step of heading to Vnukovo Airport to greet him.

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Ivan Nechepurenko
March 20, 2023, 6:31 a.m. ET

Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported some comments from Xi upon his arrival. “I am very glad, at the invitation of President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, to come back to the land of our close neighbor on a state visit,” it quoted him as saying, adding: “China and Russia are good neighbors and reliable partners connected by mountains and rivers.”

Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 6:23 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Xi was met at Vnukovo Airport by Russia’s deputy prime minister for tourism, sport, culture and communications, Dmitri N. Chernyshenko. Xi stood as a military band welcomed him.

Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 6:12 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Russian state media is treating Xi’s arrival with fanfare. State television is showing a live feed of his plane taxiing at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, alongside coverage about increased economic cooperation between Beijing and Moscow.

Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 6:07 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow at 12:59 p.m. local time, the Russian state news agency Tass reported. A military band was waiting on the tarmac to greet him.

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Ivan Nechepurenko
March 20, 2023, 5:30 a.m. ET

Putin will begin his meeting with Xi at around 4:30 p.m. Moscow time (9:30 a.m. Eastern), according to Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman. The meeting will be “informal but very important,” Peskov said.

Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 5:40 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

Peskov said that Xi and Putin will “of course” discuss Beijing’s peace proposal for the Ukraine war. “President Putin will give exhaustive explanations so that President Xi can understand the Russian position at the current moment,” he told reporters.

Valerie Hopkins
March 20, 2023, 5:47 a.m. ET

Reporting from Moscow

The Kremlin is not concerned about the arrest warrant against Putin issued by the International Criminal Court, Peskov said. “Our attitude toward this is calm,” he said, adding that “the president is continuing to work.”

Anushka Patil
March 20, 2023, 5:22 a.m. ET

Xi’s visit to Russia comes amid growing friction with the U.S.

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President Xi Jinping of China and President Vladimir Putin of Russia during a summit in Uzbekistan in September.Credit...Tingshu Wang/Reuters

The visit by China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, to Moscow comes after a year of escalating tension between Beijing and Washington over China’s relationship with Russia. Here are some of the pivotal events:

February 2022, before the invasion: The Winter Olympics in Beijing became a dramatic stage for deepening ideological divisions. While President Biden and other U.S. officials boycotted the opening ceremony over China’s human rights abuses, Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi held a high-profile meeting celebrating their close ties and displaying a united front against the U.S. and its allies.

Senior Biden administration officials later said that a Western intelligence report showed that senior Chinese officials had told their Russian counterparts to delay the invasion of Ukraine until after the Olympics. And as the buildup of Russian troops at Ukraine’s border was heightening global fears of an imminent attack, the Biden administration was beseeching Beijing to tell Russia not to invade, but being repeatedly rebuffed, according to U.S. officials.

Feb. 24, 2022: Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. China declined to call it an invasion, prompting Mr. Biden to warn that any country backing Russia’s aggression would be “stained by association.” A day later, Russia vetoed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution condemning the invasion, and China pointedly abstained from the vote.

March 2022: U.S. officials said Russia asked China to give it military equipment and support as its forces in Ukraine faced early setbacks. Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi subsequently had a nearly two-hour video call, in which Mr. Biden warned of “consequences” if Beijing were to give Russia material aid for the war.

May 2022: Mr. Biden signaled that the U.S. would go further to defend Taiwan militarily if it were attacked by China than it had in helping Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said that despite Russia’s invasion, China remained the greatest challenger to the U.S. and its allies.

November 2022: Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi spent nearly three hours together in a face-to-face meeting at the G20 summit, easing some tensions at a time when relations between their nations were at one of the lowest points in decades, but remaining far apart on the war in Ukraine.

February 2023: A Chinese spy balloon floating over the continental U.S. sparked a fresh diplomatic crisis. Mr. Blinken and China’s top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, had a confrontational meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference about the balloon, and Mr. Blinken issued another warning that Beijing should not provide Russia with military aid.

Soon after, the U.S. publicly disclosed intelligence that China was considering secretly providing Russia with lethal aid and warned of economic sanctions if the aid were sent.

On the anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Beijing released a plan for a political settlement to war, portraying itself as a mediator in the conflict, while avoiding saying anything — including the word “invasion” yet again — that could hurt its relationship with Moscow.

March 2023: As China’s ruling party awarded Mr. Xi a third term as president, he described the U.S. as a threat to his country’s growth and criticized what he called a U.S.-led campaign of “containment, encirclement and suppression.”

The annual U.S. intelligence threat assessment reported that one of the reasons China has pursued a stronger partnership with Russia is to challenge, and potentially weaken, the United States.

As Mr. Xi’s visit to Moscow approached, the Chinese foreign minister held a rare phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart and urged peace talks. On Friday, the U.S. made it clear that it would oppose any cease-fire proposals by China as the “ratification of Russian conquest.”

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