Senior US, Chinese Diplomats Hold ‘Candid’ Talks To Avoid Escalation of Tensions 

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink leaves a hotel during his visit to Beijing, China June 6, 2023. (Reuters)
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink leaves a hotel during his visit to Beijing, China June 6, 2023. (Reuters)
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Senior US, Chinese Diplomats Hold ‘Candid’ Talks To Avoid Escalation of Tensions 

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink leaves a hotel during his visit to Beijing, China June 6, 2023. (Reuters)
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink leaves a hotel during his visit to Beijing, China June 6, 2023. (Reuters)

Senior US and Chinese diplomats held “candid and productive” talks in Beijing and agreed to keep open lines of communication to avoid tensions from spiraling into conflict, officials said Tuesday.

Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant US secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, was the most senior US official confirmed to have visited China on Monday since tensions between Washington and Beijing soared over the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon over the US in early February.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the time postponed a planned trip to China, and Beijing has since largely rebuffed attempts at official exchanges, though two top US and Chinese defense officials briefly interacted at a forum in Singapore over the weekend.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Kritenbrink and Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu “had candid, constructive and fruitful communication on promoting the improvement of China-US relations and properly managing differences.”

Beijing said it had stated its “solemn position on Taiwan” — a self-ruled island China claims as its territory to be annexed by force if necessary — and other issues and that the two sides had agreed to maintain communication.

The US State Department also said the two officials held “candid and productive discussions as part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and build on recent high-level diplomacy between the two countries.”

The US Navy on Sunday complained about an “unsafe interaction” in the Taiwan Strait, after a Chinese warship came within 150 yards (137 meters) of a US destroyer. And last month, a Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close to a US reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, where Beijing shares overlapping territorial claims with other nations.

CIA Director William Burns last month reportedly took a secret trip to Beijing in another sign the two sides are interested in restoring communication through various channels.



Large Russian Drone Attack Injures Civilians in Central Ukraine

Rescuers work at the site of a residential building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dolynska, in Kirovohrad region, Ukraine, February 18, 2025. Head of Kirovohrad Regional Military Administration Andrii Raikovych via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
Rescuers work at the site of a residential building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dolynska, in Kirovohrad region, Ukraine, February 18, 2025. Head of Kirovohrad Regional Military Administration Andrii Raikovych via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
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Large Russian Drone Attack Injures Civilians in Central Ukraine

Rescuers work at the site of a residential building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dolynska, in Kirovohrad region, Ukraine, February 18, 2025. Head of Kirovohrad Regional Military Administration Andrii Raikovych via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
Rescuers work at the site of a residential building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dolynska, in Kirovohrad region, Ukraine, February 18, 2025. Head of Kirovohrad Regional Military Administration Andrii Raikovych via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS

A large-scale overnight Russian drone attack hit a residential building in the city of Dolynska in central Ukraine, injuring a mother and her two children and forcing evacuations from 38 apartments, a regional official said on Tuesday.
"A difficult night for the Kirovohrad region," Andriy Raikovych, the region's governor, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. "An enemy drone hit a high-rise building in Dolynska."
The mother and one of the children were taken to hospital, said Raikovych, who posted photos of flames bursting out of windows of a high-story apartment building.
The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that Russia launched 176 drones in a large-scale attack.
Ukraine's air force shot down 103 of the drones and 67 did not reach their targets, probably due to electronic countermeasures, the military said.
According to Reuters, it did not specify what happened to the remaining six drones, but said that Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Cherkasy regions were impacted.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that drone debris fell in one of the districts of the capital, causing a fire at an industrial enterprise.
Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Both Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians in the war, which Russia started with its full-scale invasion on Ukraine nearly three years ago. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
The attack took place as top Russian and US officials are meeting in Saudi Arabia for talks - without the participation of Kyiv or its European allies - on how to end the war in Ukraine.