Despite battleground setbacks and punitive sanctions by the West, Putin has shown little sign of relenting. His government is counting on China to help Russia withstand blows to its economy, news agency Reuters reported.

The US, which this week announced $800 million in new military aid to Kyiv, has warned that Beijing is “considering directly assisting Russia with military equipment to use in Ukraine”.

While the US says it wants to avoid direct confrontation with Russia, Chinese military aid to Moscow would pit Washington and Beijing — the world’s two biggest powers — on opposite sides of the largest assault on a European state since World War Two.

China has refused to condemn Russia’s action in Ukraine or call it an invasion. It says it recognises Ukraine’s sovereignty but that Russia has legitimate security concerns that should be addressed.

A school and a cultural centre in the town of Merefa were the latest in the harsh tally of assaults on civilian targets in Ukraine. The new attacks on civilians fuelled accusations that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine. “Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime. After all the destruction of the past few weeks, I find it difficult to conclude that the Russians are doing otherwise,” top US diplomat Antony Blinken said Thursday, following warnings from the G7 that those behind such crimes “will be held responsible.”

In the latest of a series of resonant speeches to Western lawmakers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the German parliament that Russia was building a new “Wall” in Europe. “It’s not a Berlin Wall — it is a Wall in central Europe between freedom and bondage and this Wall is growing bigger with every bomb” dropped on Ukraine, Zelensky told MPs.

Russia has accused the West of stoking a wild Russophobic plot to tear Russia apart. “It will not work – Russia has the might to put all of our brash enemies in their place,” Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said on Thursday.

Russia’s invasion has largely stalled on all fronts in recent days amid heavy losses, British military intelligence and the Ukrainian armed forces have said.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken said Thursday he saw no sign that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “is prepared to stop.” The United Nations said it had recorded 2,032 civilian casualties so far in Ukraine – 780 killed and 1,252 injured. Some 3.2 million civilians, mostly women and children, have now fled to neighbouring countries, the United Nations said.

The OECD estimates the war could knock more than 1 percentage point off global growth this year. Some creditors have received payment of Russian bond coupons which fell due this week, market sources said, meaning Russia may for now have averted a debt default.