Day 553 of the Invasion of Ukraine: Putin will meet Xi Jinping in China in October

Day 553 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

• Putin will meet Xi Jinping in China in October
• Drone attack on Russian airport, casualties after missile attack over Kyiv
• In Russia, they are puzzled as to how 20 drones blew up the airport in Pskov
• The White House hinted at Kremlin involvement in Prigozhin's death
• Russia has rejected a Brazilian agency's request to investigate the Prigozhin crash
• Prof. Branislav Slanchev: The "Wagner" group no longer exists in Russia

Putin will meet Xi Jinping in China in October

Vladimir Putin will visit China, thereby partially breaking out of the international isolation in which he was placed because of the international arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The Russian president has "accepted Xi Jinping's invitation" to participate in the summit of China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative in October, Bloomberg reports.

The Kremlin has already started preparations for his leader's first trip since March last year.

Putin recently attended the BRICS summit in South Africa in a virtual format, and at the G20 summit to be held in India in September, he will be represented by his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov.

His visit to Turkey was also cancelled, and on September 8 Recep Tayyip Erdogan will go to Russia for another attempt to revive the grain deal that Putin pulled out of in July, blocking Ukrainian grain exports to the Middle East and Africa.

Putin's last visit abroad was to Belarus in December last year.

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