Vladimir Putin met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Monday as part of a two-day Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) summit, with the two leaders touching on Ukraine amid mounting concern that Russia could be preparing to escalate the war. The Kremlin said Ukraine was not the central focus of the talks, but the meeting comes as Putin is reportedly weighing a further intensification of the four-and-a-half-year conflict, and as he continues to publicly reject any suggestion that the "special military operation" is winding down.

The SCO, marking its 25th anniversary, brings together Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Belarus and four Central Asian states, and is also attended by Turkey's Erdogan, India's Modi, Iran's Pezeshkian and Pakistan's Sharif. Sources close to the Kremlin suggest Putin fears domestic backlash if he ends the war without securing at least the whole of Donbas, reportedly telling an associate "they will hang me" if he stops short. Putin was also due to hold separate talks with Iran's Pezeshkian, whose country remains embroiled in its own six-month conflict with the United States, days after a rare Moscow visit by CIA director John Ratcliffe.