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The Hello and welcome to the Friday episode of the Battleground podcast with me, Saul David and Patrick Bishop.

Our guest today is Julius Strauss, veteran journalist, Russian speaker and former bureau chief for the Daily Telegraph in Moscow,

who's just returned to Kiev after touring eastern Ukraine to find out how people are coping,

as he puts it, under the shadow of the Russian guns.

Before we speak to Julius, we're going to do a quick roundup of the latest news,

and the big story this week, I think, is that China has agreed to strengthen its strategic

partnership with Russia as the pair present a united dual opposition to the West.

At a meeting in Beijing between the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and his Russian

counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, they promised mutual support.

China and Russia must take a clear-cut stand on the side of historical progress, said Wang,

according to the Russian state media, on the side of historical progress, on the side of

fairness and justice, oppose all acts of hegemony, tyranny, and bullying, oppose Cold War thinking and

separatist provocations, and actively push for the construction of a common future for all

humankind. And he said all this, Patrick, believe it or not, without a hint of irony.

Yes, they can do all this with a straight face, can't they very convincingly.

Partly in response, Mocea Gaiowana, the deputy chief of NATO, said that the US and its European allies

...