The Kremlin announced Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Beijing for a two-day visit next week to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The visit comes just under 24 hours after U.S. President Donald Trump wrapped up his state visit to China, where he held discussions with Xi about trade and the U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran.
According to a Kremlin statement, Putin’s May 19-20 visit is timed to mark the 25th anniversary of the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship.
The statement indicated the two leaders will focus on bilateral ties along with “key international and regional issues” and economic cooperation.
China-Russia relations have strengthened significantly in recent years, especially after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in early 2022, which left Moscow isolated internationally and dependent on Beijing for trade due to Western sanctions.
During Putin’s September 2025 visit to China, Xi greeted his counterpart as an “old friend,” while Putin also called Xi “dear friend.”
The Russian leader has plans to return to China in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen.
In other developments, Ukraine received the remains of fallen soldiers Saturday after an earlier prisoner exchange with Moscow.
Russia handed over 528 bodies that “according to the Russian side, may belong to Ukrainian servicemen,” according to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Officials said experts will now “take all necessary measures aimed at identifying the deceased who have been repatriated.”
This follows Friday’s prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine involving 205 prisoners of war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described it as the initial stage of a planned exchange of 1,000 POWs from both sides. He noted some of the returned Ukrainians had been in Russian custody since 2022 and participated in some of the conflict’s most intense fighting.
Separately, Russian forces conducted overnight drone strikes against Ukraine’s southern Odesa region Saturday, according to regional officials.
Regional head Oleh Kiper reported that Russian drones hit a five-story apartment building and a single-story home, wounding two people. He added that the city’s port sustained damage.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia deployed 294 drones overnight, with 269 intercepted and destroyed.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported its forces downed 138 Ukrainian drones overnight across 14 Russian regions, including Moscow. The ministry said drones were also eliminated over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.
