MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. Western countries appear to have intentionally announced plans to send munitions, including depleted uranium rounds, to Kiev during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on the Rossiya-24 news channel on Saturday.
"On the same day that President Xi Jinping was telling me, showing me and arguing the positive aspects of China’s plan for the peaceful solution in Ukraine, on the same day we learned about the supply of a million shells to Ukraine by Western countries, by the warmongers of this conflict," Putin said.
"The next day, right before the meeting with the press, we learned about that [news] story that the UK plans to send depleted uranium shells," he said. "It looks as if the Westerners did it deliberately so as either to derail our talks or to affect them, I do not even know why, but the impression is that they did it on purpose."
According to the Russian president, the talks with the Chinese leader focused on bilateral relations, and the economic area was the focus of attention.
"China and Russia complement each other naturally; I mean the high pace of the Chinese economy and the need for energy resources. Of course, China, most importantly, needs the stability of such supplies and, of course, Russia can ensure such stability," he said.
Putin added that the use of national currencies not only for mutual settlements, but also for settlements with third countries was also touched upon at the talks with his Chinese counterpart.
"If we use the yuan when selling energy resources, and to third countries, this will be a very serious step," the Russian leader said. "We are not going to rush anywhere in this regard, but we certainly talked a lot about it with our Chinese friend.".