War analyst Sergei Mardan said on SolovyevLive that Xi’s visit to Moscow last month had undermined the Kremlin.

‘What are we supposed to think?’ he said. ‘Are we friends or what?!’

Mardan said on his show ‘[we had] joy and confidence in believing that Xi Jinping saw Zelensky as a puppet, definitely will not call him…’

‘And then boom – this,’ he told viewers.

[Indeed. I wondered the same thing last week. It certainly sends the message that Beijing may be tired of defending Putin and his incompetent military, and that the invaders may want to wrap up their “operation.” — Ed]