As Russian troops close in on Avdiivka city an eastern Ukrainian stronghold, a high-ranking general and vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission flew to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin.
Gen. Zhang Youxia’s meeting with President Putin is boost to their strategic”no limits” ties between the two countries.
“Our contacts in the military and military-technology spheres are becoming increasingly important,” Putin told Zhang Youxia on Wednesday in Moscow.
The Russian president said Moscow and Beijing were not building a Cold War-style “military alliance,” but said cooperation between them is “a serious factor stabilizing the global situation.”
He said the United States was boosting its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, and that Russia and China would react “calmly, carefully and by strengthening our defense capabilities.”
Zhang told Putin he had come to Russia “to further strengthen military-technical cooperation,” according to a translation of a broadcast on Russian state TV.
His visit came three weeks after Putin went to Beijing in a rare trip abroad.
Avdiivka city falling to Russians
Kyiv had heavily fortified Avdiivka ahead of Russia’s anticipated offensive with concrete fortifications and dozens of kilometers of trenches.
“They want to encircle and capture the city, just as they did with Bakhmut, to demonstrate their capability to advance and also use it to coerce Ukraine into negotiations through their intermediaries,” says Ukrainian military expert Alexander Kovalenko .
Russian forces have made some progress south of Avdiivka, near the village of Severne. To the north, combat has unfolded around a large waste mound near the Avdiivka Coke Plant, a tactical elevation point for both sides.
Moscow appears to have captured the waste mound, according to pro-war military bloggers, though Ukrainian sources say this territory remains a “grey zone.”
