Russia has reportedly turned to China for military help and economic relief - as sanctions bear down and its invasion of Ukraine continues.
Meanwhile a Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian military base very close to the border with Poland has European countries eying the situation even more nervously.
Missiles hit the base about 25-kilometres from the border with Poland, killing 35 people and wounding more than a hundred.
And the humanitarian situation in the city of Mariupol has become even more desperate.
Andrew McRae reports.
