Ukraine's Zelensky held 'meaningful' call with China's Xi Jinping
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and China’s Xi Jinping spoke by phone Wednesday — their first conversation since Russia invaded Ukraine 14 months ago and a signal that Beijing may be angling to play a mediating role. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. ArrowRight China will send a special representative to Ukraine and other countries to hold talks with all parties on resolving the “crisis,” Xi told Zelensky, according to a Chinese readout of the call.
“Amid the current rise of reasonable thinking and voices from all sides, we should seize the opportunity to build up favorable conditions for a political settlement of the crisis,” Xi told Zelensky, according to the Chinese summary.
Zelensky, posting on Twitter, said that he and Xi “had a long and meaningful conversation.” He said that “this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine’s ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations.”
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Zelensky had been seeking a meeting or call with Xi since before the Chinese leader’s trip to Moscow for a state visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month.
China has declared itself to be neutral in the conflict in Ukraine, but Xi has not condemned the Russian offensive, and his meeting with Putin suggested a willingness to hear out Moscow’s claims that its security interests have been violated by the United States and other NATO nations in their support for Ukraine.
The U.N. General Assembly voted 141-7 in February to demand Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine and adherence to the U.N. Charter. China was among 32 nations that abstained.
China’s newly appointed special representative, Li Hui, is Beijing’s former ambassador to Russia who received a friendship medal from Putin in 2019.
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Ahead of Xi’s visit to Moscow, Beijing outlined a 12-point proposal for peace in Ukraine that Washington and Kyiv have dismissed as a nonstarter. The proposal did not call for Russia’s immediate withdrawal from Ukrainian territory or demand respect for Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty.
China has long been considered a possible game changer in the war between Russia and Ukraine — but not necessarily toward a peaceful resolution. U.S. and Ukrainian officials fear that China could provide Russia with lethal military aid, such as artillery ammunition — a step they say Beijing has not taken yet.
Others, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have implored China to get more involved, taking advantage of its position as a rare country with some sway over Moscow.
During his three-day visit to Beijing this month, Macron told Xi, “I know I can count on you to bring Russia to its senses and everyone to the negotiating table.”
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Wednesday’s phone conversation was a diplomatic victory for Ukraine after Zelensky’s public calls to speak with Xi, following the Chinese leader’s visit to Moscow.
“The very fact of a conversation is important, but the functionality for Ukraine is limited because we cannot look for a full and deep partnership there,” said Kyiv-based political analyst Mykola Davydiuk. “Ukraine’s main message: no Chinese intervention in the war on the side of the Russian Federation.”
“There are clear red lines in the communication between Ukraine and China,” Davydiuk added.
In an apparent swipe at the United States, Xi told Zelensky that China “will neither watch the fire from afar, nor add fuel to the flames, let alone exploit the situation for profit,” according to the Chinese readout of the call. Nationalist Chinese commentators often accuse American arms dealers of profiteering from the war in Ukraine.
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A Biden administration spokesman said on Wednesday that the United States was glad to see that Xi and Zelensky had connected.
Asked about the possibility of China brokering a settlement between Kyiv and Moscow, John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, said that any deal must be one that Zelensky accepts. “The only settlement that we think is worth pursuing is one that President Zelensky thinks is worth pursuing,” Kirby said.
Ukraine repeatedly has rejected any calls for negotiations or a cease-fire with Russia, fearing that the latter would just give Russian forces time to rearm for another attack and would pause the conflict with Moscow’s forces occupying roughly one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials have sold victory to their population as nothing short of full restoration of the country’s territory, including Crimea, which Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014, and the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions, parts of which have also been under de facto Russian control for nine years.
The Kremlin has been similarly pessimistic on peace talks. In comments to reporters in Moscow after Xi’s visit last month, Putin said much of China’s peace plan corresponds with Russia’s view and could form the basis of a future peace agreement, but only when Kyiv and the West were ready. “However, we are seeing no such readiness on their part,” he said.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this month that “undoubtedly, China has a very effective and commanding potential for mediation,” but “the situation with Ukraine is complex; so far, there are no prospects for a political settlement.”
Undiplomatic grandstanding by Chinese officials has undermined Beijing’s effort to present itself to Europeans as an honest broker.
On Monday, China had to reassure former Soviet Union states that it supports their right to exist, after its outspoken ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, questioned their status as sovereign countries during a television debate about the annexation of Crimea. The embassy later said Lu was expressing a personal opinion.
Xi also told Zelensky that “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity is the political foundation of China-Ukraine relations.”
Shepherd reported from Taipei, Taiwan. Dan Lamothe in Washington contributed to this report.
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Source: The Washington Post
