Putin to Visit Xi Days After Trump Trip05/18 06:16

   

   (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Chinese leader Xi 
Jinping on a two-day trip to Beijing next week, the Kremlin said Saturday.

   The announcement comes less than 24 hours after U.S. President Donald Trump 
finished his own state visit to China, where he also met Xi to discuss trade 
and the U.S. and Israel's war in Iran.

   In a statement, the Kremlin said that Putin's trip, planned for May 19-20, 
had been scheduled to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the 2001 
Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship.

   It said that the two leaders would discuss bilateral relations as well as 
"key international and regional issues" and economic cooperation.

   Relations between China and Russia have deepened in recent years, 
particularly since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 
early 2022 left Moscow shunned on the global stage and heavily reliant on 
Beijing for trade due to Western sanctions.

   When Putin visited China in September 2025, Xi welcomed his counterpart as 
an "old friend." Putin also addressed Xi as "dear friend."

   The Russian leader is also scheduled to visit China for the Asia-Pacific 
Economic Cooperation summit in the city of Shenzhen in November.

   Continued strikes and returned remains

   Ukraine repatriated the bodies of fallen soldiers Saturday following an 
earlier exchange with Moscow involving prisoners of war.

   Russia returned 528 bodies that "according to the Russian side, may belong 
to Ukrainian servicemen," Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment 
of Prisoners of War said in a statement.

   Experts will now "take all necessary measures aimed at identifying the 
deceased who have been repatriated," it said.

   It comes after Russia and Ukraine swapped 205 prisoners of war on Friday.

   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was the first phase of a 
planned swap of 1,000 POWs from each side. Some of the Ukrainians had been held 
by Russia since 2022 and fought in some of the war's fiercest battles, he added.

   Meanwhile, Russia launched overnight drone attacks against Ukraine's 
southern Odesa region on Saturday, regional authorities said.

   Russian drones struck a five-story apartment block and a one-story 
residential building, injuring two people, said regional head Oleh Kiper. The 
city's port was also damaged, he added.

   Russia launched 294 drones overnight, Ukraine's Air Force said, adding that 
269 of them were shot down.

   Russia's Ministry of Defense said that its forces shot down 138 Ukrainian 
drones overnight over 14 Russian regions, including Moscow. Drones were also 
destroyed over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, as well as the Black 
and Azov seas, it said.

   Ukrainian attacks killed two civilians in Russia's Belgorod region on the 
western border with Ukraine, local officials said. One man was killed when a 
Ukrainian drone hit a vehicle in the village of Krasnaya Yaruga, while another 
died when his home was hit in a strike on the village of Dubovoye. An apartment 
block in the region was also damaged in a separate attack, officials said.