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Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday. The leaders vowed to strengthen ties between their nations. Photo by Mikhael Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/EPA-EFE
Dec. 30 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke via video link with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday as the two sought to strengthen their alliance.
“Despite the unfavorable external situation, illegitimate restrictions and direct blackmail by some Western countries, Russia and China managed to ensure record high growth rates of mutual trade,” Putin said. “By the end of the year, it will increase by about 25 percent. With this momentum, we will be able to reach our target of $200 billion by 2024 ahead of schedule.”
Additionally, Putin invited Xi for a state visit “we are expecting you, dear Mr. Chairman, dear friend, we are expecting you next spring on a state visit to Moscow.”
The secretary of the Belarus Security Council, Alexander Volfovich, accused Ukraine of trying to “provoke a regional conflict,” after his government claimed a Ukrainian S-300 air defense missile was shot down over Belarus Thursday.
“There is little reason to believe that it entered our airspace by accident. By all appearances, it seems some plan was being realized here,” Volfovich told Russian state-backed outlet Sputnik.
Russia fired 16 Kamikaze drones into Ukraine overnight, all of which were shot down by the country’s air defenses, the Ukrainian military said Friday.
Two people were killed by shelling in Katerynivka, in Kharkiv region, and one person was killed in Semenivka, in the Chernihiv region, presidential advisor Krylo Tymoshenko, said.
Russian forces shelled the frontline of the Donetsk region Thursday night into Friday morning, regional military administration head Pablo Kyrylenko said.
Russia’s state-backed TASS news agency reports that the Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic, two regions that Russia has annexed, approved new constitutions.
“Today we are participants in a historic event. This stage marks the return of Donbas to the boss of the Russian cultural and historical tradition,” Donetsk People’s Republic leader Denis Pushilin told TASS.
