Xi makes cryptic comment to Putin as Ukraine gets hit with missiles

Chinese President Xi Jinping departed Russia Wednesday, leaving President Vladimir Putin with a puzzling parting message about the power of their relationship.

“Now there are changes that haven’t happened in 100 years. When we are together, we drive these changes,” Xi said.

“I agree,” Putin replied, to which Xi said, “Take care of yourself, dear friend, please.”

There was no indication that Xi’s attempts to play peacekeeper yielded any results — as he left Moscow, Russia blasted an apartment block in Ukraine with missiles, killing at least one person.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky shared a video of the explosion’s fiery aftermath and condemned Russia for its brazen daytime attack.

“Right now, residential areas where ordinary people and children live are being fired at,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter.

“This must not become ‘just another day’ in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world. The world needs greater unity and determination to defeat Russian terror faster and protect lives.”

Firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze, which held strong in two adjacent buildings in Zaporizhzhia. Local officials said at least one person had been killed and 33 others were wounded by the missile strike.

Over 20 Iranian drones were also fired off at Ukrainian cities overnight, according to Zelensky.

In the town of Rzhyshchiv, two college dormitories were struck and the explosion killed at least six people. Eighteen others were injured and three people were still believed to be missing. The military said it shot down 16 of 21 drones.

At least 100 rescue workers were sent to the town, which was littered with glass and debris, to try to dig people out from underneath the rubble.

Zelensky appeared to criticize the Chinese president’s visit to the Russian capital, which had been touted as an opportunity for Xi and Putin to discuss solutions to the ongoing war.

“Every time someone tries to hear the word ‘peace’ in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on Twitter.

The White House also criticized China, saying its position was not impartial, and urged Beijing to get Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.

The Biden administration also took issue with the timing of the meeting, which was held days after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest for alleged war crimes.

During his two-day visit with his “dear friend,” Xi hardly mentioned the war in Ukraine and claimed that China took an “impartial position.”

Posing as a peacemaker, Xi presented Putin with a 12-point plan, which calls for a cease-fire, settling the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and a prisoner exchange — but fails to mention key details like Ukraine’s independence and Russia’s occupation of its territory.

Putin seemed agreeable to the plan but slammed Kyiv and the West for not being “ready” for the settlement.

“We believe that many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China are consonant with the Russian approaches and can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement when they are ready for that in the West and in Kyiv,” Putin said Tuesday. “However, so far we see no such readiness from their side.”

With Post wires