Vladimir Putin has been brutally mocked after he appeared to walk awkwardly as he arrived for his summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing today. His right leg seemed stiff or painful as he strode in his platform shoes onto the red carpet top meet the Chinese leader.

Ukrainian sources immediately mocked him over the footage from the official welcome at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square. "The orc can barely walk," said one Ukrainian channel using a derogatory." One commenter asked: "Is he using an exoskeleton?"

Another observer said: “Putin shuffles forward with an awkward stooped gait as he greets Xi in Beijing.” Putin uses adapted shoes to big-up his 5ft 7in height compared. Xi is believed to be 5ft 11in.

There were earlier awkward moments exiting his Flying Kremlin presidential Ilyushin — Il-96-300PU — as Putin, 73, walked with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a member of the politburo since 2022.

Some overseers believed Putin received a superior welcome than Donald Trump last week when he was met by vice-president Han Zheng, seen as having little sway and no longer in the politburo.

Xi stressed that the war in the Middle East must be stopped to ensure stability of global energy supplies and international trade.

Putin is keen to insert himself in the peace process by taking Iranian enriched uranium - which the US has not so far agreed to.

Alexei Likhachev, head of Rosatom, Russia’s Atomiс Energy Corporation and part of Putin’s entourage in China, claimed: “Iran has once again made a statement that it has never sought and will not seek to create nuclear weapons.

“The Americans have once again made a statement that they will never allow the creation of nuclear weapons in Iran.

Therefore, it would be nice against this backdrop to direct highly enriched uranium to the peaceful sphere, which [Russia] can do easily and with pleasure.”