Donald Trump continues to ratchet up the pressure on Russia, in advance of a new deadline for Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire by the end of this week. The US is now imposing an additional 25 per cent tariff on India,

The Russian leader communicates the news to his Chinese counterpart before it became official. Minutes after reports emerged about a first meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, although there was no official announcement yet regarding the exact day and location,

China is pleased to see Russia and the United States maintaining contact and improving ties to advance a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis, President Xi Jinping said in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Trump aims to break up the Putin-Xi alliance through a "reverse Kissinger" strategy, and experts suggest Russia could be pushed away from China rather than vice versa.

President Xi Jinping expressed China's support for improved relations between Russia and the United States, particularly regarding a political resolut

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to the leaders of China, India and three ex-Soviet states on Friday in a flurry of calls to brief them on his contacts with the United States about the war in Ukraine.

This comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming trip to China's Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit