Russia, China look to strengthen ties as Beijing's top diplomat visits Putin

U.S. President Joe Biden met withleaders of NATO's eastern flank on Wednesday while China's top diplomat held talks in Moscow contrasting shows of support ahead of the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to the stalemate nearly one year out from the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion with veiled threats to use nuclear weapons. He suspended the New Startnuclear arms control treaty on Tuesday, accusing Washington of turning the war into a global conflict by arming Ukraine.

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China and Russia struck a new "no limits" partnership just weeks before the invasion, and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi was meeting with Putin on Wednesday.

"Russian-Chinese relations are developing as we planned in previous years. Everything is moving forward and developing," Putin said to reporters, alongside Yi.

China has pointedly refused to criticize the invasion of Ukraine echoing Moscow's claim that the U.S. and NATO are to blame for provoking the Kremlin while blasting the punishing sanctions imposed on Russia. The Kremlin, in turn, has staunchly supported China amid tensions with the U.S. over Taiwan.

"No matter how the international situation changes, China has been and remains committed, together with Russia, to make efforts to preserve the positive trend in the development of relations between major powers," Yi said.

The two nations have also held a series of military drills in recent years. Russian, Chinese and South African warships will conduct artillery firing exercises in the Indian Ocean as part of joint military drills, the Interfax news agency cited Russia's Northern Fleet as saying on Wednesday.

Orban skips summit

After meeting with Yi, Putin led crowds to chant "Russia, Russia" to show their support for the country's military at a rally in front of tens of thousands at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium.

Biden on Wednesday met in Warsaw with leaders of the Bucharest Nine, NATO's eastern members that joined the alliance after years of Cold War domination by the then-Soviet Union. The group Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia includes many of the strongest supporters of military aid to Ukraine.

"You're the front lines of our collective defence," Biden told the group. "And you know, better than anyone, what's at stake in this conflict.Not just for Ukraine, but for the freedom of democracies throughout Europe and around the world."

He pledged that NATO's mutual-defence pact is "sacred" and that "we will defend literally every inch of NATO,"reiteratinghis country's commitment toArticle 5, a clause in NATO's charter stating that an attack on one member is an attack on all.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was a no-show, with the country's President, Katalina Novak, attending instead. Orban, the right-wing populist leader who argued last week that the European Union is partly to blame for prolonging Russia's war in Ukraine, has balked at sanctions on Moscow and arming Kyiv.

Putin, who argues that NATO represents an existential threat to Russia, delivered a warning to the West over Ukraine on Tuesday by suspending its last major nuclear arms control treaty with the United States, New Start.

Russia's lower house of parliament rubber-stamped the suspension of the treaty on Wednesday.

WATCH |Western officials assess nuclear threat:

Should the world take Putins latest nuclear threats seriously?

2 years ago

Duration 9:38

Vladimir Putin has never shied away from nuclear threats. With the world watching his war in Ukraine, CBC's Terence McKenna hears from experts who know Putin to find out how serious those threats are.

Biden said in an ABC News interview on Wednesdaythat he did not "read into" Putin's decision on the treaty as asignal the Russian president was considering using nuclearweapons, even though the U.S. leader called it a "big mistake" and "not very responsible."

'Unmoored' from reality

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister MlanieJolyon Wednesday saidPutin is losing his grip on reality, a year after his invasion of Ukraine.

"As we mark this grim occasion, the Russian Federation's further invasion and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine rages on,"Jolytold the United Nations General Assembly.

"This is not and has never been a so-called special military operation.President Putin is entirely responsible for this war, and his latest address proves that he remains unmoored from this reality," she said.

Jolywas speaking in New York City ahead of a vote by all UN member states on whether to condemn Moscow and call on it to end the war.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Putin's decision on the nuclear treatymade the world more dangerous and urged Putin to reconsider.

Tension over Ukraine had already halted inspections under the treaty, which calls for the United States and Russia to let each other check their nuclear arsenals.

Allies try to keep up with ammunition supply

NATO allies and other supporters have sent Ukraine tens of billions of dollars worth of arms and ammunition. Since the new year they have promised modern battle tanks, though they have yet to offer Western fighter jets sought by Kyiv.

There are concerns about the flow of ammunition. The European Union on Tuesday urged its member countries to provide more ammunition to Ukraine from their stockpiles and from any orders that they might have already placed with the defence industry.

According to some estimates, Ukraine is firing up to 6,000-7,000 artillery shells daily about the same amount that a small European country orders in a peacetime year but only around one-third of the number of rounds that Russia is using.

Within Ukraine, schools took their classes online for the rest of this week for fear of an upsurge of Russian missile attacks.

Ukraine's military said Bakhmut city, the focus of Russian advances in the eastern region of Donetsk, came under shelling, along with 20 other settlements in the area.

Two civilians were wounded in a Russian missile strike on Wednesday on industrial facilities in Kharkhiv, the biggest city in eastern Ukraine, local officials said.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

WATCH |Putin expresses resolve, but no battlefield details:

Putin, Biden give duelling speeches on state of war in Ukraine

2 years ago

Duration 2:36

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of igniting war in Ukraine and threatened to pull out of a nuclear treaty, while U.S. President Joe Biden promised Russia would never experience victory in Ukraine.