Report: China’s Xi Accepts Invitation to Attend Moscow’s Victory Day in May

 China's President Xi Jinping is pictured on a screen during the opening ceremony of the Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang province on February 7, 2025. (AFP)
China's President Xi Jinping is pictured on a screen during the opening ceremony of the Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang province on February 7, 2025. (AFP)
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Report: China’s Xi Accepts Invitation to Attend Moscow’s Victory Day in May

 China's President Xi Jinping is pictured on a screen during the opening ceremony of the Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang province on February 7, 2025. (AFP)
China's President Xi Jinping is pictured on a screen during the opening ceremony of the Harbin 2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang province on February 7, 2025. (AFP)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted Russia's invitation to attend the commemorations of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, TASS state news agency reported on Monday.

"Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted an invitation to take part in the celebrations on May 9 in Moscow on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War," TASS cited Russian ambassador to China, Igor Morgulov, as telling Russian state television.

The Kremlin said in December that it had invited "many countries" to attend the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, which Russians call the "Great Patriotic War."

The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two, including many millions in Ukraine, but eventually pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler committed suicide, and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in 1945.

Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender came into force at 11:01 p.m. on May 8, 1945, marked as "Victory in Europe Day" by France, Britain and the United States. In Moscow it was already May 9, which became the Soviet Union's "Victory Day" in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.

Victory Day has become Russia's most important secular holiday.

Morgulov said that Xi in return, invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to China for the country's commemoration o f the end of World War Two, which are planned for September.



Masked Rioters Attack Highway in Central France

Police officers pass a boarded up high street shop on the Champs Elysees ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain tonight, and Bastille Day celebrations tomorrow, in Paris, France, July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson
Police officers pass a boarded up high street shop on the Champs Elysees ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain tonight, and Bastille Day celebrations tomorrow, in Paris, France, July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson
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Masked Rioters Attack Highway in Central France

Police officers pass a boarded up high street shop on the Champs Elysees ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain tonight, and Bastille Day celebrations tomorrow, in Paris, France, July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson
Police officers pass a boarded up high street shop on the Champs Elysees ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup final between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain tonight, and Bastille Day celebrations tomorrow, in Paris, France, July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson

Dozens of masked assailants wielding metal bars and Molotov cocktails attacked cars on a highway and clashed with police Saturday in the city of Limoges in central France, officials said.

The overnight clashes left 10 police wounded, according to authorities, who said they suspect a gang turf war.

The unrest came in the middle of France's summer tourism season.

The armed attackers descended on the RN141 highway and tried to block it during a battle with police, according to officials.

"There were between 100 and 150 masked individuals, armed with Molotov cocktails, fireworks, stones, iron bars and baseball bats," local police union leader Laurent Nadeau told AFP.

Police responded with tear gas and crowd-control munitions.

Mayor Emile Roger Lombertie called the rioters an "urban guerrilla group".

"They're organized, structured, there's a plan, weapons," he said.

"This was not a spontaneous protest to complain about something. No pretext, nothing. It's about destroying things and showing the territory belongs to you," Lombertie added.

Prosecutors said vehicles were attacked but there were no immediate reports of wounded drivers.

Unrest had erupted nearby, in Val de l'Aurence, on the night of July 14, France's national day.

Lombertie said this "very poor neighborhood, with young people from immigrant backgrounds" had become a "lawless zone".

France's interior ministry announced on Saturday plans to deploy a special security force to the city.