You can see the preparations for these Molotov cocktails.

This here is chunks of styrofoam being put into the bottle because it's a good sort of accelerant.

Here is the fuel concoction involving oil and fuel.

And then over here, this gentleman is preparing the wick.

That's my L.A. Times colleague, Nabiboulos, reporting from Kiev on a group of Ukrainians

determined to fight back against Russian troops with whatever they have.

Wine bottles, vodka bottles, beer, anything goes.

But our episode today starts about a month ago and far from the battlefields of Ukraine.

It starts in Beijing.

On February 4th, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping just hours ahead of the opening ceremony for the Beijing Winter Olympics.

China and Russia announced a new partnership with China saying it'll back Russia's foreign policy aims and saying it supports Russian demands that NATO halt its expansion.

The meeting made headlines and has people asking,

could China be the overlooked player in the Russian-Ukraine crisis?

I'm Gustav Ariano.

You're listening to The Times, Daily News from the LA Times.

It's Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022.

Today, we dive into Russia and China's complicated relationship and whether she is taking any notes for Taiwan.

Here to discuss this is my LA Times colleague and China correspondent Stephanie Yang. Stephanie,

welcome to the Times. Thank you for having me. The summit between Putin and she before the

Olympics opening ceremony generated headlines, but also a pretty long joint statement between the two

of them. What did it say? I think that this was quite notable because it showed a strengthening of ties between the two countries.

It was quite a long statement. It was more than 5,000 words.

...