Putin to visit Xi Jinping in Beijing next week: Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a two-day trip to Beijing next week, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
The announcement comes less than 24 hours after US President Donald Trump finished his own state visit to China, where he also met Xi to discuss trade and the US-Israel war in Iran.
In a statement, the Kremlin said that Putin’s trip, planned for May 19-20, had been scheduled to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship.
It said that the two leaders would discuss bilateral relations as well as “key international and regional issues” and economic cooperation.
Relations between China and Russia have deepened in recent years, particularly since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, which left Moscow shunned on the global stage and heavily reliant on Beijing for trade due to Western sanctions. When Putin visited China in September 2025, Xi welcomed his counterpart as an “old friend.” Putin also addressed Xi as “dear friend.” The Russian leader is also scheduled to visit China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.
Continued strikes and returned remains
Ukraine repatriated the bodies of fallen soldiers on Saturday following an earlier exchange with Moscow involving prisoners of war. Russia returned 528 bodies that, according to the Russian side, may belong to Ukrainian servicemen,” Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement.
Experts will now “take all necessary measures aimed at identifying the deceased who have been repatriated,” it said. It comes after Russia and Ukraine swapped 205 prisoners of war on Friday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was the first phase of a planned swap of 1,000 POWs from each side. Some of the Ukrainians had been held by Russia since 2022 and fought in some of the war’s fiercest battles, he added. Meanwhile, Russia launched overnight drone attacks against Ukraine’s southern Odesa region on Saturday, regional authorities said. Russian drones struck a five-story apartment block and a one-story residential building, injuring two people, said regional head Oleh Kiper. The city’s port was also damaged, he added.
Russia launched 294 drones overnight, Ukraine’s Air Force said, adding that 269 of them were shot down.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that its forces shot down 138 Ukrainian drones overnight over 14 Russian regions, including Moscow. Drones were also destroyed over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, as well as the Black and Azov seas, it said.
