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

Away from the battlefield, the big news this week was the visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping

to Moscow in which he demonstrated China's very firm support for Vladimir Putin

and Russia. And all this, despite the decision a few days before by the International Criminal

Court in the Hague, to charge Vladimir Putin with war crimes, notably the forcible deportation

of hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russia.

We'll also discuss Britain's decision to include depleted uranium shells with the Challenger two tanks it's sending to Ukraine, a drone strike on a Russian train in the Crimea that destroyed

cruise missiles, and a local Ukrainian counterattack southwest of Batwood that's forced Russian troops further away

from the last remaining supply route into the Beligate city. And in part two, as ever,

we'll answer another great selection of listeners' questions. So to President Xi's state visit

to Russia this week, well, the red carpet was well and truly rolled out, and there were

many schmaltzy references to their shared destiny and dear friendship, etc., etc. But to my mind,

it must have been a bit of a letdown for Putin. If he was hoping that she would be offering

unalloyed support for his war in Ukraine and his wider claim that Russia is engaged in

an existential struggle with

the West, he was disappointed. Now, an indication of the different positions was provided by the

pre-meeting statements of both men. Putin spoke of a bipolar struggle against the US-led West.

She would not go that far. In truth, the summit produced, in my view, few tangible results for Russia.

...