The following is lifted from Heather Cox Richardson’s Facebook page, which I encourage anyone to follow. She is a history professor who tries to put current events into perspective:
Today China, which was allied with Russia when the war began and initially refused to condemn the assault, today declined to co-sponsor a “humanitarian” resolution with Russia at the United Nations. At the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China joined Russia in vetoing resolutions. Then China abstained. Now it is refusing even to co-sponsor a “humanitarian” resolution.
While Chinese state media continues to indicate friendship for Russia, today it showed a video illustrating the story that Russian troops killed people standing in line for bread in Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine.
A German newspaper today reported that Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was on a flight on its way to Beijing, but the plane turned around during the flight and returned to Moscow. President Joe Biden and Chinese president Xi Jinping are scheduled to talk tomorrow for the first time since November after U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan met with top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi for seven hours in Rome on Monday.
China has not abandoned support for Russia, but it does appear to be rethinking its position as the world condemns the invasion and has acted in concert to isolate Russia effectively from the global economy. Today Russia did in fact make a $117 million interest payment on its debt, avoiding—for now—a default on its debt. For all Putin’s talk of not needing the international financial system, in the end, he chose to honor the debt, and in dollars rather than in the badly devalued rubles he had threatened.
Pieces continue to move elsewhere in the world, too. Uzbekistan today became the first Central Asian country to openly support the territorial integrity of Ukraine and condemn Russia’s “military actions and aggression.”…
If all of these data points ultimately mean that China no longer supports Russia’s war on Ukraine, Putin must be finding himself very lonely. Uzbekistan condemning the invasion must also hurt.