Parades in Beijing, Blood in Odesa – Putin’s Victory Tour While Ukraine Burns

Vladimir Putin steps off his plane in Tianjin as if he were the sovereign ruler of a peaceful great power - while the sirens wail again in Ukraine. “On the night of August 31, Russia used drones to strike four energy facilities in the Odesa region - about 29,000 households were suddenly without power. In Chornomorsk houses and administrative buildings were damaged, one person was injured. Supply infrastructure is currently running only on emergency generators.”

The country that Russia has forced into war for more than three years is being further reduced to rubble - while its president is greeted with red carpets and celebrated in China as a shaper of a new world order.

The SCO summit in Tianjin is the largest since the organization’s founding and a stage Putin relishes. His message is clear: Russia is not isolated, it is a global player. In an interview with China’s Xinhua news agency he attacked the West, called sanctions “discriminatory” and demanded a reform of the World Bank and IMF. That these sanctions are a response to a brutal war of aggression that creates new mass graves every day is something he leaves unmentioned. Xi Jinping smiles along and stages the strategic partnership as an equal alliance. In truth Russia is dependent: China supplies 70 percent of the machines, 90 percent of the semiconductors that keep Moscow’s arms industry running, and soaks up cheap Russian oil and gas while Europe has weaned itself off. It is a trade that prolongs the war.

Putin’s trip is not short but nearly a week long, and it is full of symbolism. He meets Xi for bilateral talks, takes part in the grand parade for the 80th anniversary of the victory over Japan, sits on Tiananmen Square as guest of honor while Chinese troops march. It is the mirror image replay of May 9 in Moscow when Xi stood next to Putin. Together they show the world: we are not isolated, we are the heirs of World War II, we stand together. For Ukraine this is a bitter message: its plight has become background noise, its destruction a sideshow to a geopolitical performance.

In Washington Putin’s trip is being watched with concern - but the pressure on Beijing remains low. The Trump administration conspicuously refrains from imposing secondary sanctions on China, avoids forcing Xi to rein in his partner. Instead the focus is on trade disputes with India. This allows Beijing to rhetorically regret the war but in fact support it. Putin has no reason to give in. Every day he survives further exhausts Western societies, further bleeds Ukraine dry. This trip thus becomes sheer provocation. It is a parade of normality for a man whose army bombs cities, who abducts Ukrainian children, who makes his political opponents disappear into camps. While Putin reviews the parade in Beijing, new graves are dug in Ukraine. While he smiles with Xi, rescue workers dig survivors from the rubble. The world looks on - and lets him keep flying.

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