Xi and Putin highlight their friendship and cooperation on energy and other issues in Beijing visit

BEIJING (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin praised his close ties with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and said their countries are partners in trade and international affairs as they opened bilateral talks Wednesday on his trip to Beijing.

Xi welcomed Putin with a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People only days after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. The quick succession of Trump’s and Putin’s visits highlighted Beijing’s growing role as an international superpower, experts say.

Putin greeted Xi warmly as they met for bilateral talks at the Great Hall of the People.

“My dear friend,” Putin said. “We are truly delighted to see you. We keep in constant touch, both personally and through our aides in the government.”

Xi also stressed the “political mutual trust and strategic cooperation” between the countries, according to Chinese state media. The two leaders have praised each other profusely in the past, with Xi at one point describing Putin as his “best and most intimate friend.”

Xi and Putin were set to focus on energy and security as well as their overall ties. The two sides agreed to extend a friendship treaty first signed in 2001, Chinese state media reported.

China became Russia’s top trading partner after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Beijing has said it is neutral in the conflict while maintaining trade ties with the Kremlin despite economic and financial sanctions by the U.S. and Europe.

China is the top customer for Russian oil and gas supplies, and Moscow expects the war in Iran to increase the demand.

In his meeting with Xi, Putin stressed their countries’ economic ties.

“The driving force behind economic cooperation is Russian-Chinese collaboration in the energy sector,” Putin said. “Amid the crisis in the Middle East, Russia continues to maintain its role as a reliable supplier of resources, while China remains a responsible consumer of these resources.”

Xi stressed the need of “complete cessation of hostilities” in the Middle East, according to Chinese state media.

“An early end to the conflict will help reduce disruptions to energy supply stability, the smooth flow of industrial and supply chains, and international trade order,” Xi said.

A Russian presidential aide said earlier Russia’s oil exports to China grew by 35% in the first quarter of 2026 and that Russia is one of the biggest exporters of natural gas to China.

Putin also stressed China and Russia’s cooperation in foreign policy as “one of the key stabilizing factors on the international stage.”

“In the current tense situation on the international stage, our close cooperation is particularly in demand,” he said.

In February 2022, just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China and Russia announced a “no limits” partnership during a trip by Putin to Beijing.

Beijing says it is neutral in the conflict, though in practice it supports Moscow through frequent state visits, growing trade and joint military drills. China has also ignored demands from the West to stop providing high-tech components for Russia’s weapons industries.

The two leaders are scheduled to sign cooperation agreements during Putin’s two-day visit.

But regardless of specific deals, the primary purpose of the visit is to reaffirm the countries’ ties as well as project Beijing’s image as an influential superpower, experts say.

“The optics matter,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London.

“The message is clearly one that China maintains friendship and strategic partnership with whichever power it likes, and the USA is just one of them.”

Putin and Xi both need to use their close ties in order to prop up their images at home, said Willy Lam, a senior China fellow at the Jamestown Foundation.

Putin “needs to tell his countrymen and the world that Russia has China’s support in terms of buying its oil and gas and other tangible and intangible financial support,” Lam said.

Meanwhile, for Xi, having both Trump and Putin visit in such close succession is a major source of credit with the country’s top Communist leadership.

Putin noted earlier this month that Moscow and Beijing have reached “a very substantial step forward in our cooperation in the oil and gas sector.”

“Practically all the key issues have been agreed upon,” he said. “If we succeed in finalizing these details and bringing them to a conclusion during this visit, I will be extremely pleased.”

Putin also praised their bilateral relationship as a crucial, balancing force in international relations.

“Interaction between such nations as China and Russia undoubtedly serves as a factor of deterrence and stability,” he said.

Moscow welcomes China’s dialogue with the U.S. as another stabilizing element for the global economy, Putin added.

“We stand only to benefit from this, from the stability and constructive engagement between the U.S. and China,” he said.

Mistreanu reported from Bangkok.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chinese Premier Li Qiang shake hands during their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Kristina Solovyova, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a bilateral meeting at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Children holding Russian and Chinese flags walk ahead of a welcoming ceremony for Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Maxim Shemetov/Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Maxim Shemetov/Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, foreground and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Maxim Shemetov/Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Maxim Shemetov/Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping inspect an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Maxim Shemetov/Pool Photo via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian ballistic missiles struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early on Sunday, setting off fires and wounding at least three civilians, while attacks on other parts of the country later killed at least two people, local officials said.

The strikes came as Ukraine’s successful drone attacks have stalled the Russian army’s advances in an expanded campaign inside Russia that has been causing fuel shortages and piling pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

In Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, Kremlin-installed authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike had killed four civilians in the city of Horlivka. According to Ivan Prikhodko, the city’s Russian-appointed mayor, the city had been under fire since the early hours of Sunday.

According to Russia’s defense ministry, Russian forces overnight struck down 133 Ukrainian drones over Russia, the Black Sea and Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Blasts rocked Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday, with falling debris sparking a blaze in a tower block near the historic center, according to mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Elsewhere in the city, falling debris set fire to buildings, cars and car parks, Klitschko added. He said three people had been wounded, with one needing hospital treatment.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in his evening address on Friday that intelligence assessments indicated that Russia was preparing missiles for a large attack, saying there were indications that this could happen in the next 48 hours.

Russia’s defense ministry claimed on Sunday that its latest attack on Kyiv had struck sites linked to drone production.

Also Sunday, a drone strike on Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city in the east — killed one person and wounded at least six others, including two children, mayor Igor Terekhov reported.

In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian glide bomb killed one man and wounded at least six other people, according to mayor Ivan Fedorov.

Both Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia have been frequent targets for Russian attacks, with Zaporizhzhia — just over 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the front line — suffering heavy bombardment in recent months.

On Friday, a major Russian strike near Kyiv killed at least 10 people and wounded around 100 others, part of a cycle of tit-for-tat attacks that dims the potential of reaching a diplomatic end to Russia’s more than 4-year-old invasion of its neighbor.

Meanwhile, Finnish President Alexander Stubb claimed on Sunday that “Ukraine’s position is stronger than ever since the war began".

Following a call with his Ukrainian counterpart — and appearing to allude to Kyiv’s recent drone campaign that has struck major Russian energy sites and sought to choke off military supplies — Stubb wrote on X that “continued support from (Ukraine's) partners is critical to keep up the momentum."

Putin said Western attempts to seize Russia-linked oil tankers amounted to “piracy,” and called on the Russian Navy to fight them.

“We must act carefully in line with international maritime law but decisively — just as we must fight piracy and pirates," Putin said Sunday during a speech marking Russia's annual Navy Day.

Moscow is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships, many of them sailing under third-country flags, to ship oil in violation of international sanctions that followed its war on Ukraine.

Last month, armed British forces boarded and detained a sanctioned tanker suspected of being part of this so-called “shadow fleet.” French authorities have also intercepted some of these vessels.

Russia has traditionally marked Navy Day with a major naval parade in and near the city of St. Petersburg, with Putin personally reviewing warships.

This year was the second time in a row the parade had been called off entirely while in 2024, it was scaled down.

A British intelligence update published earlier this month linked the cancellations to “force protection” concerns, citing a successful Ukrainian attack on Jun. 3 against a Russian warship docked near St. Petersburg.

Romania intercepted a suspected Russian drone in its airspace on Sunday, Romanian President Nicușor Dan said — the third such incursion in three days above the Eastern European nation that borders Ukraine and is a member of both NATO and the European Union.

Dan called the incidents “inadmissible and intolerable" in a post on X and added that authorities found one of the earlier downed drones appears to be “a Shahed type, used by the Russian Federation in the war of aggression against Ukraine.”

NATO said two Romanian F-16 fighter jets scrambled from Fetești airbase, under NATO's operational command, in the morning hours and downed the drone over the Black Sea.

A series of drone incursions by Russia and Ukraine have hit Romania and other NATO members since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Associated Press writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service and taken Saturday, July 25, 2026, Ukrainian servicemen repair the damaged anti-drone net in the frontline town of Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)

Rescuers carry a body that they removed from under the rubble of an private house following a drone attack from Russia, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

Rescuers search through the rubble of a private house destroyed by a Russian drone in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

This photo provided by Ukraine's 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service and taken Saturday, July 25, 2026, shows the damaged center of the frontline town of Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)

This photo provided by Ukraine's 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service and taken Saturday, July 25, 2026, shows the damaged center of the frontline town of Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)