Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday hailed "deepening" trust with Russia as he sat down with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.

"The political mutual trust between China and Russia is becoming deeper, and the ties for pragmatic cooperation are becoming stronger," Xi said, visiting Moscow for Russia's May 9 celebrations of the World War II defeat of the Nazis.

Turkey on Wednesday warned of a risk of "all-out war" between India and Pakistan, after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed neighbors in two decades.

"The attack carried out last night by India runs the risk of an all-out war," said a foreign ministry statement after India's deadly missile strikes. "We condemn this provocative initiative as well as the attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure."

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Wednesday the creation of a "French-German defense and security council" as Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Paris.

Deadly clashes between India and Pakistan have prompted concern and calls for restraint from around the world on Wednesday.

Attacks by Ukrainian long-range drones caused flight disruption at Moscow's main airports for a third straight day on Wednesday, authorities said, as Russia prepared to receive the Chinese president and other foreign leaders for the annual Victory Day military parade in Red Square.

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery fire along their contested frontier on Wednesday after New Delhi launched deadly missile strikes on its arch-rival, in the worst violence between the nuclear-armed neighbors in two decades.

Russia will stick to its plans to halt fire on Ukraine between May 8-10, but will respond to attacks by Kyiv's forces, the Kremlin said Tuesday, days after Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the truce proposal as a "game" and "manipulation".

"President (Vladimir) Putin's initiative for a temporary ceasefire," remains in force, the Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, but added that "an adequate response will be given immediately" if Ukraine does not also halt combat operations.

Cities from London to Moscow will be awash with parades, flyovers and memorials this week as the world marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day — the day Nazi Germany surrendered to Allied forces.

The surrender didn't end World War II because the war against Japan continued in the Far East. However, it was a moment of celebration for the servicemen and women who battled Adolf Hitler's armies, as well as civilians across Europe who had been bombed, invaded and subjugated since the invasion of Poland in 1938.

In a forest near Berlin, the remains of 107 fallen Wehrmacht soldiers were ceremoniously interred last week. High school students placed white gerbera daisies on small black coffins, and German soldiers lowered them respectfully into a large, freshly dug grave as a military band played a solemn tune.

Hundreds of villagers and relatives of the fallen watched silently, some wiping tears off their cheeks, as the soldiers who died in one of the last large World War II battles fighting for Adolf Hitler's army got their final resting place.

Conservative leader Friedrich Merz 's bid to become Germany's 10th chancellor since World War II failed in the first round of voting in parliament on Tuesday by six votes, a vote he had been widely expected to win smoothly.

Merz needed a majority of 316 out of 630 votes in a secret ballot. He only received 310 votes. The parties were now to regroup to discuss the next step but it was not immediately clear how long the process could take.