Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, will meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Beijing for talks on Wednesday, the Kremlin has confirmed. It will be the Russian president’s first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the international criminal court issued a warrant for him in March over the deportation of children from Ukraine. Russia’s top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, arrived in Beijing on Monday.
Slovakia’s populist former prime minister, Robert Fico, and his party signed a coalition deal to form a new government expected to reduce support to Ukraine, Reuters reported. Fico, a three-time prime minister last in power in 2018, won an election on 30 September with pledges to halt military aid to Ukraine.
The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said support for Ukraine remained a “top priority” for the US and Europe, reaffirming the Biden administration’s commitment to support Kyiv “for as long as it takes”. Yellen told reporters that Joe Biden would submit a supplemental funding request for Ukraine and Israel “as soon as we have a functional House of Representatives”.
A days-long attempt by Russian forces to storm a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine appears to be waning, Kyiv officials have claimed. Ukrainian forces repelled 15 Russian attacks from four directions on Avdiivka over the previous 24 hours, the Ukrainian general staff said on Monday. These claims have not been independently verified.
Reuters reported that Russia launched five missiles and 12 kamikaze drones at Ukraine in an overnight attack, Ukraine’s air force said early on Monday.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will visit North Korea on a two-day visit on 18-19 October. The Russian foreign ministry announced the news on its website.
