Xi Jinping is hosting Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un in Beijing for the first time, alongside other international leaders, as the West watches on. Meanwhile, the suspect in the killing of a former speaker in Ukraine’s parliament has confessed. Follow the latest on the Ukraine war below.
Tuesday 2 September 2025 17:13, UK
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What does the meeting between Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un mean for the war?
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Vladimir Putin’s four-day trip to China continued today with more diplomatic meetings.
Having met yesterday with the leaders of Turkey, Iran and India, among others, the Russian president has met today with the prime ministers of Slovakia and Pakistan, as well as the presidents of Serbia and Uzbekistan.
A meeting between Putin and close ally Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, is also taking place in Beijing this afternoon.
As we’ve reported, Putin’s trip to China has not meant any let up for Ukraine, with Russian forces launching drone attacks on Kyiv both overnight and throughout the day.
The funeral of murdered Ukrainian politician Andriy Parubiy has taken place this afternoon in Lviv.
The 54-year-old former parliament speaker was shot dead in the street last Saturday. Authorities have already detained a suspect who has admitted to the killing (see last post).
Parubiy played a key role in a pro-democracy uprising in 2014 that ousted a pro-Russian president, and later served as parliament speaker.
“He was a big patriot of Ukraine – that’s all you need to say,” 82-year-old resident Orest Kokovskyi told Reuters.
The man arrested in connection with the murder of Ukrainian politician Andriy Parubiy has admitted to carrying out the assassination in Lviv on Saturday.
In courtroom footage broadcast on television today, a Ukrainian man admitted to the murder and described it as “my personal revenge” against the state.
“I admit, I killed him. And I want to ask to be exchanged for prisoners of war so that I can go and find my son’s body,” told journalists from a glass cell.
When asked why Parubiy became the victim, he replied that the politician “was nearby”.
Ukraine’s air force says Russia has fired 53 drones at Ukraine today during daytime attacks.
It already reported this morning that some 150 drones were launched overnight, but says “repeated attacks” since then have targeted the capital, Kyiv.
“As of 4pm (2pm UK time), air defence has shot down/suppressed 48 enemy drones.”
The air force said further Russian drone groups are being detected over the northern Chernihiv and Sumy regions.
Finland’s president says progress is being made on security guarantees for Ukraine but cautioned that he was not optimistic about a peace agreement or a ceasefire happening in the near future.
“We need to coordinate the security arrangements with the
United States, which essentially will provide the backstop for this,” Alexander Stubb told reporters.
“We’re focusing on these issues with our chiefs of defence, which are drawing the concrete plans of what this type of operation might look like.”
“We’re making progress on this and hopefully we’ll get a
solution soon,” he added.
Stubb was one of several European leaders travelling to Washington in August for a joint meeting with Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the war.
He’s become a close ally to Trump in 2025, with US senator Lindsey Graham going as far as calling Stubb the “bridge between America and Europe”.
As we’ve mentioned, Kyiv came under a rare daytime attack today, with officials asking people to stay in underground shelters until the skies were clear.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presidential office, said: “Russia is not pursuing any military targets right now, it is attacking the city during working hours, when there are many people on the streets.”
The German chancellor says he will suggest Geneva as a venue for another round of Ukraine-Russia peace talks during Thursday’s coalition of the willing meeting in Paris.
“Geneva would be a suitable venue for a ceasefire agreement,” Friedrich Merz said at a news conference.
“Security guarantees will play a role,” he said, adding he will participate in Thursday’s talks remotely.
By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
This was unusually soft language from Vladimir Putin.
Ahead of his talks with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, the Kremlin leader said three things that struck a distinctly conciliatory tone regarding peace talks with Ukraine.
Europe will view the statements with scepticism, though.
Because whenever Russia says something that sounds like a climbdown, it often turns out not to be the case. Drill down in the details and you’ll normally find several strings attached.
Take the issue of security guarantees. After the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska, the White House seemed to believe that Russia had agreed to a NATO-style mutual defence mandate for Ukraine.
But when Europe started to explore how that’ll work in practice, Moscow began imposing conditions like no NATO peacekeepers, moving the discussions back to square one.
The “consensus” Vladimir Putin now appears to have in mind is unclear – it may just be a consensus on Russia’s terms.
Ukraine and its allies will also note that Putin’s softer tone still carried a hard edge.
Although he doesn’t oppose Ukraine joining the EU, he said NATO membership is out of the question – reiterating one of Russia’s longstanding red lines.
And he also repeated the Kremlin’s reasoning for launching its invasion – that Russia was acting in self-defence in response to Western aggression.
But Europe wasn’t his audience here; it was Donald Trump.
I think this was all part of the Kremlin leader’s courtship of the US president, to keep him onside and stave off any sanctions.
He’s trying to portray Russia as the party that wants peace, and Ukraine as the party that causes problems, hoping that any pressure that comes from Washington is directed at Kyiv.
The prospect of Chinese peacekeepers in Ukraine wasn’t discussed in a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping today, according to Russian media.
Reports last week said that US President Donald Trump proposed the idea, as efforts are being made to work out security guarantees to end the war in Ukraine.
Citing Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, state media site RIA Novosti added that further meetings between Moscow and Washington, at the ministerial level, were planned.
Kim Jong Un has arrived in Beijing for his first ever international summit, having only attended bilaterals with leaders previously.
He took the train from Pyongyang, travelling for about a day.
Kim and Putin will reportedly sit together at Xi Jinping’s military parade to mark 80 years since the end of the Second World War.
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