Xi’s visit occurs when the Trump administration seeks a “no unconditional fire” of 30 days between Russia and Ukraine, and before the United States and China’s commercial conversations this weekend, the first since Trump imposed pronounced tariffs on US commercial partners throughout the world.
XI was among the 29 world leaders who expected to attend commemorations, according to Kremlin. Diplomats from other countries said the presence of the Chinese leader had taken into account their decisions to come.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned world leaders who do not attend commemorations, saying that he would undermine the declared neutrality of some countries in the Ukraine War. But Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva He told NBC News that Zelenskyy had asked him to deliver a message to Putin asking for a sustained fire.
The Ukrainian government did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Lula insisted that stopping with Putin in the Red Square “will not strengthen” the Russian leader.
“Brazil’s position has not changed,” he said in an interview on Thursday. “Brazil criticizes the Ukrainian occupation and we have to find peace.”
Moscow does not seem like a city that wants peace at any cost. Before the parade, the hotel workers, the officials and many members of the public carried the orange and black film of Saint George, a Russian military symbol that, especially since the 2022 Putin Ukraine invasion, has been associated with Russian nationalism and militarism. The streets were covered in the same colors.
Huge advertising fences connected the anniversary of World War II with the “Special Military Operation” of Putin in Ukraine, while others welcomed world leaders individually, including those of Cuba and Venezuela.
May 9 is a sacred day for the former Soviet Union, which lost 27 million people during World War II. But Friday’s parade was chased by the war in Ukraine, now in his fourth year.
China, Russia’s largest commercial partner, has struggled to be portrayed as neutral in the Ukraine War while supporting diplomatic and economically. Xi told Putin on Thursday that he expected “a fair and lasting peace agreement that is binding and accepted by all interested parties.”
XI will leave Russia on Saturday, since US and Chinese officials meet in Switzerland to discuss the growing tariffs between the two countries that have shaken the global economy.
China agreed with the conversations without any concession of the United States, which suggests that tariffs “are having their planned effect,” said Craig Singleton, the main member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies based in Washington.
