Just 24 hours before Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are set to meet for their planned summit in Beijing, soon on the heels of Trump's visit, and a geopolitical wrench may have just been thrown into the works.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian forces haveattacked a Chinese ship heading toward a Ukrainian port- a provocative move that threatens to seriously anger Beijing at the worst possible diplomatic moment.
Early Monday morning, a Russian drone reportedly struck the KSL Deyang, a vesselflying under the Marshall Islands flag, just off the coast of Ukraine, Reuters also confirms.
The ship was reportedly empty at the time while en route to Ukraine's Pivdennyi port in the Odesa region to load up on iron ore concentrate.
A fire was observed on board, but it was quickly brought under control and extinguished, with the vessel escaping severe damage.
The Ukrainian government is alleging this wasn't some kind of accidental fog-of-war blunder, with President Zelensky immediately calling outMoscow:
“Drones struck Odesa ... and one of the UAVs hit a vessel owned by China. The Russians could not have been unaware of what vessel was at sea,”Zelensky said.
A Ukrainian navy spokesman told AFP that none of the crew members,all Chinese nationals, were injured. He added that the vessel continued on its journey.
“The ship was entering for loading. After it was hit at night by a Shahed, the crew coped with the consequences on their own. Fortunately, no one was injured, and the vessel continued on its way to its port of destination,” navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said.
The incident went down just after on Sunday Xi and Putin had just exchanged "congratulatory letters" to set the stage for Putin's upcoming arrival in Beijing.
Source: ZeroHedge News
