With the leaders of Russia and India visiting, China’s president will show how he can use statecraft, military might and history to push for global influence.
The Russian authorities have seized on the crisis in Donetsk to argue that taking over the rest of the region from Ukraine would allow Moscow to restore the water supply.
The traditionally Russian-speaking area is at the heart of what the Russian president calls the “root causes” of the war, and taking it over is near the top of his list of territorial and political demands.
A Ukrainian soldier at a frontline position outside Toretsk, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The area is at the center of territorial disputes between Ukraine and Russia.
The talks on Friday in Alaska pull the Russian leader out of diplomatic isolation from the West, and Ukrainian and European leaders fear it gives him an opening to sway the American president.