Now is not the time for backsliding on support for Ukraine

President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow this week could prove to be an important one for the war in Ukraine. The Chinese president has described Putin as his "best friend". However, importantly, he has stopped short of explicitly endorsing either Russia's expansionist war aims or its criminal conduct of the war. As the appalling brutality of the war in Ukraine continues, most recently in the struggle for the town of Bakhmut, we must never become so anaesthetised to the tragedy that we lose our human empathy or our moral compass. While China's policy is about realpolitik rather than ethics, president…