March 21, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

By Kathleen Magramo, Sana Noor Haq, Aditi Sangal, Alisha Ebrahimji, Elise Hammond and Tori B. Powell, CNN

Updated 12:05 a.m. ET, March 22, 2023
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12:27 p.m. ET, March 21, 2023

"China's peace plan can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine," Putin says

From CNN's Chris Liakos

China’s proposal for a peace plan in Ukraine, “can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, when the West and in Kyiv are ready for it,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

"We believe in many of the points on the peace plan put forward by China,” he added.

Putin said he also discussed sanctions with his Chinese counterpart.

“When we discussed international problems, we stated that Russia and China’s views are converging and very close on a number of them,” Putin said. “Tension in a number of regions in the world is increasing, the conflict and crisis potential is growing, the practice of using illegitimate politically motivated sanctions and other restrictions is expanding.”

“China and Russia are against any states violating the interest of other countries for the sake of military, political or economic benefit,” Putin said.

12:14 p.m. ET, March 21, 2023

Putin says he is "in constant contact" with Xi Jinping

From CNN's Chris Liakos

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that he is “in constant contact" with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

This “enables us to find any solutions even in the most difficult situation to all problems,” Putin said, calling China a “stable trade partner.”

China is the “leading destination for import of Russian oil,” he added.

Putin also said cooperation with China in nuclear energy is increasing.

12:08 p.m. ET, March 21, 2023

Putin calls Xi Jinping a "friend" and describes all discussions in Moscow meetings as "successful" 

From CNN's Chris Liakos

Russian President Vladimir Putin kicked off his speech to reporters following two days of meetings with his Chinese counterpart by calling Xi Jinping a “friend.”

“All our talks today, and yesterday in one-to-one format, and with delegations, were successful and took place in friendly atmosphere,” Putin said. 

The two leaders moments earlier signed a joint declaration on deepening partnership.

“The two key statements we have just signed fully reflect the nature of Russian-Chinese relations, which are at their highest level of development and are an exemplary of a true comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation. Russia and China are bound by strong ties of good neighborhood, mutual assistance and support between our nations. We maintain an active bilateral dialogue at all levels,” Putin said.

12:05 p.m. ET, March 21, 2023

Putin and Xi sign joint declaration on deepening partnership

From CNN's Xiaofei Xu and Wayne Chang

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have signed a joint declaration "on key aspects of the Sino-Russian economic cooperation plan by 2030," according to Chinese state media on Tuesday.

The two leaders took part in the document signing ceremony in the Malachite Hall at the Grand Kremlin Palace

The leaders emphasized that the Ukrainian crisis should be solved through peace talks, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

12:07 p.m. ET, March 21, 2023

US will send Patriot missile systems to Ukraine faster than originally planned, defense officials say

From CNN's Natasha Bertrand

Patriot missile defense systems are set to be deployed to Ukraine faster than originally planned, and a group of 65 Ukrainian soldiers will complete their training on the systems at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in the coming days, US defense officials said on Tuesday.

The troops will then move on to Europe for additional training on the two Patriot systems—one American, and one built by the Germans and Dutch— that will be deployed to Ukraine in the coming weeks, the officials told reporters at Fort Sill.

US trainers at Fort Sill, where the 65 Ukrainians have been training since January 15, were able to significantly speed up the timeline of the course because of the Ukrainians’ baseline knowledge of air defense systems, the officials said.

The acceleration of Patriot deployments comes the same day it was reported that the US will accelerate the time it takes to ship Abrams tanks to Ukraine by sending older M1-A1 models of America's main battle tank instead of the more modern version of the tank, according to two US officials.

“Our assessment is that the Ukrainian soldiers are impressive, and absolutely a quick study,” said Brig. Gen. Shane Morgan, the Fort Sill commander. “Due to their extensive air defense knowledge and experience in a combat zone, it was easier— though never easy—for them to grasp the Patriot System Operations and Maintenance concepts.” 

The US military had allocated 10 weeks for the training, but the Ukrainians completed it in about 8 weeks. The training schedule was “aggressive,” a Fort Sill official said, with the Ukrainians training daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time.

11:26 a.m. ET, March 21, 2023

Putin: Moscow is ready to support Chinese business to replace Western companies that left Russia

From CNN's Anna Chernova

Moscow is ready to support Chinese businesses in replacing Western companies that have left Russia since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday ahead of expanded talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

“We are ready to support Chinese business in replacing Western enterprises that left Russia,” Putin said.

Some background: Dozens of the world’s biggest companies abandoned or scaled back their operations in Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. The exodus affected every corner of the economy, from its vast energy riches through autos, finance, retail, entertainment and fast food, starving Russia of new investment and removing products and services that had become popular in the decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some high-profile exist were by Apple, Ford and BP. See the list here.

11:28 a.m. ET, March 21, 2023

Putin says he held "substantive" and "frank" discussion with Xi

From CNN's Chris Liakos

Ahead of the start of scheduled expanded negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the two leaders had “substantive” and “frank” discussions so far.

“Last night, we had a substantive conversation about the entire comprehensive agenda between our countries and the urgent international and regional problems,” Putin said in his opening statement.

“Having just met in a narrow circle we had a frank and full discussion and exchanged views on the future development of Russian-Chinese ties and the strengthening of coordination on the international scene,” he said.

Next, the two leaders are next going to have “a detailed examination of the practical aspects of our cooperation in various areas in extended meeting between our delegations,” Putin said, including a plan for the development of key areas of Russian-Chinese economic cooperation until 2030.

Additionally, Putin told Xi that Russia is “able to meet the growing demand of Chinese economy for energy resources.”

11:05 a.m. ET, March 21, 2023

Xi: Russia and China are pushing for further cooperation

From CNN's Xiaofei Xu and Wayne Chang

Russia and China are pushing for further cooperation and that the countries are seeing “early results” of their cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

"Our areas of cooperation continue to expand and our consensus continue to deepen. We are seeing early results of our cooperation and further works are under full implementation," Xi said. 

According to a Chinese state media readout, in a meeting earlier Tuesday Xi told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin that China and Russia should enhance and expand economic and trade cooperation, and "jointly safeguard our two countries’ energy security."

10:54 a.m. ET, March 21, 2023

US will accelerate delivery of tanks to Ukraine, officials say

From CNN's Oren Liebermann and Kevin Liptak

US soldiers operate an Abrams M1-A1 tank to engage a simulated opposing force during the Bull Run training exercise at Bemowo Piskie, Poland, in November 2022.
US soldiers operate an Abrams M1-A1 tank to engage a simulated opposing force during the Bull Run training exercise at Bemowo Piskie, Poland, in November 2022. (Staff Sgt. Matthew Foster/US Army National Guard)

The US will dramatically accelerate the time it takes to ship Abrams tanks to Ukraine by sending older M1-A1 models of America’s main battle tank instead of the more modern version of the tank, according to two US officials. 

The switch will allow the tanks to arrive as early as the fall of this year, one of the officials said, shaving months off the previous timeline that could have taken a year or longer.

On Tuesday morning, the National Security Council’s strategic communications coordinator John Kirby said that the US was working to speed up the delivery of tanks to Ukraine. 

 “We're working on that. There's some changes that you can make to the process, to sort of speed that up,” Kirby said on MSNBC. “The Pentagon is working as fast as they can, and they'll have more to say on adjustments they're making.”

More on the tanks: The US had previously announced it would send the more modern M1-A2 version of the Abrams battle tank, but that would have required either building new tanks or modernizing existing older tanks, then training Ukrainian crews on the more advanced system. The M1-A2 has a newer digital targeting system that makes it a more capable tank, but it also required more training for Ukrainian troops to operate the more complex tank and to maintain the system. 

The decision to speed up the delivery of tanks comes as Ukraine is preparing to launch a spring offensive against Russian forces, built largely around the more powerful and more advanced systems Western countries have agreed to send, including tanks and other armored vehicles. 

The US still intends to send 31 M1-A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, the same number as previously announced. The size of a complete Ukrainian tank battalion.  

What other US officials have said: In mid-February, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said these systems would “make a pretty significant difference” in Ukraine’s anticipated counteroffensive. Austin urged other countries last week to send tanks and other armored vehicles to Ukraine as soon as possible.

Last month, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth had said all of the options the US was considering to get tanks to Ukraine would take months.

“We’re looking at options for how to get the Ukrainians tanks and there are a variety of different ways that we could do that,” Wormuth told a group of reporters at the time. “We’re looking at what’s the fastest way we can get the tanks to the Ukrainians. It’s not going to be a matter of weeks.”

But she warned that even the faster options still involve “longer timelines” that may take more than a year.

Reuters first reported the decision to send the older Abrams tanks.