TOP HEADLINES

• Russia's prime minister hailed "unprecedented" relations with China despite "sensational pressure" from the West, as he met with his counterpart in Beijing. READ MORE BELOW

• A Russian official in the southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine said the territory was targeted by numerous drones overnight, following an armed incursion into the territory from Ukraine.

• Russia said it had deployed jets and artillery to destroy an armed group that penetrated its border from Ukraine, while the Kremlin ordered its military to prevent any repeat attack. "To our great regret, we do have casualties. A peaceful civilian - a resident of the settlement of Kozinka, died at the hands of Ukrainian forces. Our most sincere condolences go to all their relatives and loved ones," governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

• The World Health Organization assembly passed a motion condemning Russia's aggression against Ukraine, including attacks on healthcare facilities. The motion passed by 80 votes to nine, with 52 abstentions.

• The EU has supplied Ukraine with over 200,000 artillery shells and 1,000 missiles under a plan to rush urgently needed ammunition to Kyiv, the bloc's foreign policy chief said. The EU has agreed to spend €2 billion (around $2.2 billion) from its common funds to try to get a million rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine over twelve months. 

• Russian energy giant Gazprom, whose gas exports have plummeted in the wake of the Ukraine conflict, said its net profit fell by 41 percent last year due to a tax increase. The company reported a profit of 1.2 trillion rubles ($15 billion) for 2022, down from 2.1 trillion rubles in the previous year.

• Poland is ready to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets, the Polish defense minister said, after the United States gave its green light. "We're ready. The Polish side is ready to train pilots on F-16 aircraft. Such training has not yet begun," Mariusz Blaszczak said, after talks with his EU counterparts in Brussels. 

• Hungary's right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban insisted that Ukraine cannot win its war with Russia and argued Washington must step in to end the conflict. Orban, who is at odds with other EU members over the war and has blocked EU aid for Ukraine, reaffirmed calls for a ceasefire. "It's obvious that the battlefield solution does not work," he said, insisting that Ukraine could not win.

• Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner mercenary group, warned that Russia could face a revolution similar to those of 1917 and lose the conflict in Ukraine unless the elite got serious about fighting. He cautioned that Russia was in danger of turmoil.

IN DETAIL

Moscow hails 'unprecedented' relations with Beijing

Russia's prime minister hailed "unprecedented" relations with China despite "sensational pressure" from the West, as he met with his counterpart in Beijing. 

China and Russia have in recent years ramped up economic and diplomatic cooperation. Beijing maintains that it is neutral in Russia-Ukraine war.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived in China on Monday, attending a business forum in Shanghai on Tuesday before traveling to Beijing to meet Premier Li Qiang and President Xi Jinping.

It is the highest-level visit by a Russian official to China since last year's offensive.

"Today, relations between Russia and China are at an unprecedented high level," Mishustin told Li after a grand welcoming ceremony outside Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

"They are characterized by mutual respect of each other's interests, the desire to jointly respond to challenges, which is associated with increased turbulence in the international arena and the pattern of sensational pressure from the collective West," he said.

Li, in turn, hailed the "comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Russia in the new era."

"I believe your trip to China this time will definitely leave a deep impression," he said.

Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday