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KYIV — President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday was visiting the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson partially controlled by Russian forces, after Kyiv's troops captured the regional capital late last year, the presidency said.

Ukraine forces recaptured Kherson city, the administrative centre of the southern region in November following a strategic withdrawal of Russia forces. 

But the region is still partly controlled by Russian forces, who are dug in on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river and routinely shell Kherson city, killing civilians.

"Working trip to Kherson region. The village of Posad Pokrovske, where houses and civilian infrastructural facilities were damaged as a result of Russia's full-scale invasion," Zelensky said in a message on social media.

He said local authorities were restoring essential services like electricity and water in the village and rebuilding a medical centre.

"People are returning," he said in the post, adding that: "I talked to the locals about their problems and needs".

The southern region of Kherson, which gives access to both the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, was captured easily and early by Russian forces in the early days of the invasion launched last February.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed to have captured the region and annexed it in September last year, despite not having full military control over it.

Zelensky in a separate post said he had held a coordination meeting with officials and discussed de-mining and reconstruction in recaptured territory.

The head of Kherson region military administration Oleksandr Prokudin announced on Thursday that one person had been killed over the last 24 hours and two injured by Russian forces.

MOSCOW — Chinese leader Xi Jinping left Russia on Wednesday after a summit with President Vladimir Putin that was a display of unity against the West, with no apparent signal of a breakthrough to end the fighting in Ukraine.

The nations, eager to curb Western power, expressed concerns about NATO expansion in Asia and agreed to deepen a partnership which has grown closer since Putin launched an offensive in Ukraine.

Xi's plane left Moscow's Vnukovo airport after being seen off by an honour guard, Russian news agencies reported, capping a visit that was a boost for the internationally-isolated Russian leader.

Putin said he was open to talks on Ukraine and praised Beijing's 12-point position paper on the conflict, which includes a call for dialogue and respect for all countries' territorial sovereignty.

"Many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China... can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement when Kyiv and the West will be ready for it," Putin said after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

“However, so far we have not seen such readiness on their part.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had invited China to talks, and is waiting for an answer from Beijing.

“We offered China to become a partner in the implementation of the peace formula. We passed over our formula across all channels. We invite you to dialogue. We are waiting for your answer,” Zelensky told a press conference.

The United States, however, said it does not see China as capable of being an impartial mediator — Washington’s most direct criticism yet of Beijing’s aim to be a middleman in efforts to end the conflict.

‘Unlimited possibilities’ 

Moscow and Beijing have over the past years ramped up cooperation, both driven by a desire to counterbalance US global dominance.

The Chinese leader’s Moscow visit has been viewed as a boost for Putin, who is subject to an International Criminal Court warrant over accusations of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

“I am sure that Russian-Chinese cooperation has truly unlimited possibilities and prospects,” Putin said at a state dinner following the talks, where he toasted the “prosperity” of Russian and Chinese people.

He earlier gushed over the “special nature” of the relationship between the two countries in remarks broadcast on state television.

On the second day of his visit to Moscow, Xi said ties with Russia were “entering a new era”.

Putin called the talks “meaningful and frank” and said that Russia, which has been largely cut out of European markets because of sanctions, would be able to meet China’s “growing demand” for energy.

Energy is a key focus of Xi’s visit, and Putin announced the two countries had reached an agreement on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which will connect Siberia to northwest China.

US ‘undermining’ global security 

In a joint statement, the two leaders took aim at the West, accusing the United States of undermining global security.

“The parties call on the United States to stop undermining international and regional security and global strategic stability in order to secure its unilateral military advantage,” Russia and China said in the declaration.

They also expressed “great concern” over NATO’s growing presence in Asia.

On Monday, Xi and Putin held four and a half hours of talks, calling each other “dear friend”.

China and Russia have often worked in lockstep at the UN Security Council, using their veto power as permanent council members to counter the West.

Russia’s assault on Ukraine has also deepened fears among Western powers that China could one day try to take control of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing sees as part of its territory.

China has sought to portray itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, but Washington has said Beijing’s moves could be a “stalling tactic” to help Moscow.

The United States has also accused Beijing of mulling arms exports to Moscow, claims China has vociferously denied.

Japan PM in Kyiv 

Xi’s trip coincides with a surprise visit to Kyiv by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who visited Bucha, a town where Russian forces were accused of committing atrocities during their occupation last year.

“Our talks with Mr. Kishida were quite productive,” Zelensky said in his evening address.

“I also heard a very concrete willingness of Japan to work together with us to even more actively mobilise the world for international order, to protect against aggression, to protect against Russian terror,” he said.

Kishida, the last Group of Seven leader to visit the country, had come under increasing pressure to make the trip, as Japan hosts the group’s summit this May.

Zelensky confirmed on Tuesday he would participate in the G-7 summit via video link.

And the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday it had reached an agreement with Ukraine on a four-year loan package worth around $15.6 billion, intended to support European Union accession talks and reconstruction in the conflict-hit country.

STOCKHOLM — Sweden’s parliament voted Wednesday in favour of joining NATO despite delays by Hungary and Turkey to ratify its membership bid, which will likely lead to Sweden joining after neighbouring Finland.

The vote, which paved the way for the country’s NATO accession and provides the necessary legal framework, passed with 269 votes in favour and 37 against, with 43 MPs not attending in Sweden’s 349 seat parliament.

“NATO membership is the best way to safeguard Sweden’s security and to contribute in solidarity to the security of the entire Euro-Atlantic area,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told parliament during the debate that preceded the vote.

Sweden and Finland dropped their decades-long policies of military non-alignment and applied to join the trans-Atlantic defence pact last May, in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

But Sweden has had several diplomatic spats with NATO member Turkey, which have delayed its membership bid and chances of joining at the same time as Finland.

Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO countries yet to ratify the Nordic countries’ bids — which require unanimous ratifications by all 30 members.

Following months of delays, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced last week that he was asking parliament to vote on Finland’s bid to join the NATO defence bloc.

He said he was still not ready to move forward on Sweden.

No effect 

In another setback for Sweden, Hungary announced that it would vote on Finland’s ratification on March 27, but Sweden’s bid would be decided on “later”.

Erdogan has accused Sweden of not honouring the terms of a separate deal they reached in June 2022, under which Turkey had agreed to approve the bids.

Turkey has sought the extradition of dozens of Kurdish and other suspects it accuses of ties to outlawed militants and a failed 2016 coup attempt.

Following Turkey’s announcement, Billstrom said Sweden regretted the decision but he and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson have said they are confident Sweden would still become a member before the next NATO summit in Vilnius in July.

As the NATO entry was debated on Wednesday, some MPs pointed out that the vote, given the present situation, would have no effect.

“Although the bill states that ‘the amendment is proposed to enter into force at a date determined by the government’, this means the date determined by Erdogan and [Viktor] Orban,” Hakan Svenneling, MP for the Left Party, told parliament.

Sweden’s membership bid has enjoyed wide support in the country’s parliament, with only the Left Party and the Green Party opposing the membership.

MOSCOW — Xi Jinping said Tuesday that China would prioritise ties with Russia, calling the two "great neighbouring powers" as he prepared for a second day of talks with Vladimir Putin expected to focus on Ukraine.

The Chinese president also said he invited the internationally isolated Putin to visit China later this year as both leaders seek an alliance to counteract Western power.

Beijing and Moscow's trade ties have boomed since Russia's Ukraine campaign, linking the nations more closely and raising worries in Western capital over how far the ties will go.

Xi said China's government would "continue to prioritise the all-round strategic partnership between China and Russia".

"We are great neighbouring powers," he was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying during a meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

Xi's trip coincides with a surprise visit to Kyiv by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who arrived Tuesday in what Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzheppar called a "historic" visit.

Writing on Twitter, she called it “a sign of solidarity and strong cooperation between [Ukraine and Japan]. We are grateful to Japan for its strong support and contribution to our future victory.”

‘Constructive role’ 

Xi’s visit to Moscow has been viewed as a major boost for Putin, who is under Western sanctions and subject to an International Criminal Court warrant over accusations of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

On Monday, Xi and Putin held four and a half hours of talks, calling each other “dear friend.”

In a rare move, Putin escorted Xi to his car after the talks, and the two were seen smiling together.

During the meeting, the Russian leader said he was open to talks on Ukraine and praised Beijing’s 12-point position paper on the conflict, which includes a call for dialogue and respect for all countries’ territorial sovereignty.

Xi and Putin are also expected to discuss boosting economic cooperation as Russia boosts energy exports to China after being mostly shut out of European markets.

Ahead of the talks, Russian gas giant Gazprom said that supplies through the Power of Siberia pipeline to China had reached a daily record on Monday.

Xi’s three-day visit began a day after Putin travelled to Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, his first trip to territory captured from Kyiv since the start of the assault in February 2022.

China has sought to portray itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, but Washington has said Beijing’s moves could be a “stalling tactic” to help Moscow.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Xi’s Moscow visit “suggests that China feels no responsibility to hold the president accountable for the atrocities committed to Ukraine”. 

“And instead of even condemning, it would rather provide diplomatic cover for Russia to continue to commit those great crimes,” he added.

The United States has accused Beijing of mulling arms exports to Moscow, claims China has vociferously denied.

Zelensky has said he would welcome talks with Xi, though there has been no indication from Beijing of any such plans.

Kishida heads to Kyiv 

Meanwhile, Japanese leader Kishida was on his way to Kyiv, where he would offer “solidarity and support” in a meeting with Zelensky.

Kishida is the last Group of Seven leader to visit Ukraine and has come under increasing pressure to make the trip, as Japan hosts the grouping’s summit this May.

Japan and China are close trading partners, but Tokyo has been increasingly worried about Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the region.

Japan is part of the US-led security alliance known informally as the Quad, which also includes India and Australia, and positions itself as a bulwark against China’s military ambitions in Asia and the Pacific.

Moscow and Beijing have over the past years ramped up cooperation, both driven by a desire to counterbalance US global dominance.

While Beijing has called for an “impartial” mediation in the conflict, Western countries have argued that China’s proposals are heavy on grand principles but light on practical solutions.

The United States said last week that China’s proposals would simply consolidate “Russian conquest” and allow the Kremlin to prepare a fresh offensive.

China and Russia have often worked in lockstep at the UN Security Council, using their veto power as permanent council members to counter the West.

It defended Putin on Monday against the International Criminal Court, saying that the court should avoid what it called “politicisation and double standards” and respect the principle of immunity for heads of state.

Russia’s assault on Ukraine has also deepened fears among Western powers that China could one day try to take control of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing sees as part of its territory.

AVDIIVKA, Ukraine — There's a second frontline town in eastern Ukraine that the Russians are trying to batter into submission just like Bakhmut, but locals say Avdiivka is unlikely to fall anytime soon.

Pounded by artillery and latterly by air strikes, Avdiivka is another flashpoint in the Donbas region that Moscow's forces are trying to surround, just like in Bakhmut, 60 kilometres to the north.

“Every day is the same with these bombs and missiles,” said 70-year-old Nadezhda.

She and a neighbour headed home with bags of food aid, passing close to a 15-storey residential tower ripped open during an attack the previous day.

“When I saw it, I was just staggered,” said Nadezhda.

The Russian army has been trying to conquer Avdiivka since 2014 when fighting broke out between Kyiv’s forces and Kremlin-backed separatists.

The town lies just 13 kilometres from Donetsk, the Russian-held capital of the eponymous region. Before the February 2022 invasion, the town had a population of 30,000.

After more than a year of fighting, only 2,300 people are left, including 1,960 living off aid, said local military administration chief Vitaliy Barabash.

“Over the last three weeks, with the help of the police and volunteers, we have evacuated about 150 people.

‘Destroy everything’

“We had 47 children in the town, today only eight remain,” he told AFP.

A few people still survive in the basements of buildings in the town centre. Some have stayed in the hundreds of homes spread across the east side.

They have had no running water, gas or electricity for months.

Outside a building destroyed by a missile, an old man is trying to cut up a doorframe and branches from a tree with a saw and an axe. He refuses help and works steadily.

He loads up his bag with wood and swings it on his arched back. He sets off slowly on old wooden crutches, his right leg limping.

“The situation is just getting worse. Now, [the Russians] use X-59s, X-101s, X-555s, C-300s,” said Barabash, listing long range weapons.

“That was never the case before. They are hitting us with about 10 to 12 missiles a day, if not 14.”

For Ruslan Surnov, who runs an aid centre, “the missiles are getting bigger and bigger, just like the damage. Buildings literally collapse... They will probably destroy everything here.

“We were not really frightened before, we had become used to the GRAD rockets, even if they are designed to kill people.”

‘Aerial attack’ 

“But now, we are bombarded by missiles, we are under aerial attack,” he said.

When the Ukraine conflict erupted back in 2014, pro-Russian separatists took Avdiivka before Kyiv’s forces wrestled back control.

Its closeness to the front line made the town a focus of the fighting before last year’s full invasion.

The town is now the theatre of some of the hardest fighting along the front, along with Bakhmut.

Last June, north of Avdiivka, Russian forces cut off one of the two main access roads and took up positions to the east and south.

They have advanced over recent months taking the villages of Vodiane and Opytne to the southwest as well as Krasnogorivka and Vesele to the north, creating a pincer movement to capture Avdiivka, if it cannot be seized by a frontal assault.

In the fields bordering the only access road, shells have left behind small, blackened craters.

For Barabash, missile strikes are the “biggest problems... obviously another problem is that they are still trying to surround the town”.

All the same, Avdiivka does not look likely to fall.

‘We have nothing’ 

“The town has been on the front line for more than eight years. It’s a very serious line of fortification, all concrete, with bunkers,” said Ruslan Surnov.

“It’s a real fortress. It’s better protected than Bakhmut.

“Bakhmut mostly has trenches, here we have bunkers,” he noted.

As the fighting rages, even the main hospital has not been spared.

“On March 8, our canteen was hit,” but no one was hurt, said hospital director Vitaliy Sytnyk.

A surgeon still operates there, but the most seriously wounded are taken to other towns.

“Most people come to look for medicine, because all the chemists are closed,” said Sytnyk, adding that some “ask for sedatives, sleeping pills” to cope with the stress.

Nadezhda has another worry.

“We would like to have a bit of rain for the garden,” she said.

“We should already have already started planting but the soil is dry... All these explosions even affect the rain clouds. The result is we have nothing.”

NEW DELHI — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday called India vital to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific after talks with his counterpart touching on shared concerns about China.

Speaking in New Delhi after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kishida laid out plans for billions of dollars in investments in infrastructure and other sectors across the region.

"I have described Japan's plan to develop a free and open Indo-Pacific. To achieve this, India is an indispensable partner," Kishida said.

"Japan will strengthen coordination with the US, Australia, UK, Canada, Europe and elsewhere. Of course, India is indispensable."

India, Japan, the United States and Australia make up the Quad alliance, which positions itself as a bulwark against China's growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region under President Xi Jinping.

India's relations with China nosedived after 20 Indian troops died in clashes with Chinese soldiers in 2020 on their disputed Himalayan frontier.

In December Japan, officially pacifist since 1945, revamped its defence policy after warning that China, with which it has a fraught history, posed the "greatest security challenge ever".

Japan is also boosting military spending and is carrying out more joint exercises with other countries, including India, which has also deepened defence cooperation with Western nations.

Quad summit 

In June, Kishida had said Japan would help train 800 maritime security personnel and provide at least $2 billion to other countries to buy patrol boats and build up infrastructure as part of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy.

Kishida said on Monday that FOIP’s scope would expand to include new areas like climate change, cybersecurity and food security.

It would also direct public and private capital worth $75 billion towards Indo-Pacific infrastructure by 2030.

Kishida’s visit came less than a fortnight after Modi hosted his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese for talks that also covered worries about China.

Albanese, who is also forging closer ties with the United States and Britain under the separate so-called AUKUS alliance, is due to host all Quad leaders in May.

The Quad members deny hostile intentions and stress that they are not a military alliance, but China has described the grouping as an attempt to encircle it.

Kishida had been expected to press Modi to take a tougher line on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which India — a major buyer of Russian arms and oil — has refused to condemn.

There are fears that China may begin providing military assistance to Russia — despite denials from Beijing — and Xi was in Russia for talks with his “old friend” President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Kishida said that there was a “lack of guiding perspective that is acceptable to all about what the international order should be.

“This was clearly demonstrated by the considerable discrepancies in the attitudes across various countries to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” he said in his speech.

G-7 invites 

He added that he had invited Modi and the leaders of other countries in the region — including South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam — as well as Brazil to a G-7 summit in May.

India currently holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 (G-20), which also includes China and Russia.

G-20 meetings in India this year have failed to agree joint common statements on the war because of differences over the year-old Ukraine conflict.

Modi and Kishida also discussed deeper cooperation on clean energy, digital trade and infrastructure.

In March 2022, in his first visit to India, Kishida said Japan would realise 5 trillion yen in public and private investment to India over the next five years.