Ukraine’s Zelensky is upbeat after first call with China’s Xi since war began
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had a “long and meaningful” phone conversation Wednesday, their first known contact since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago, and Beijing appointed an envoy to pursue a “political settlement.”
The hourlong call came two months after Beijing, which has long been aligned with Russia, said it wanted to act as a peace mediator in the war against Ukraine and after Xi visited Moscow last month. It also came as Ukraine readies its forces for an expected spring counteroffensive.
Zelensky was upbeat about the phone call, which offered him the chance to insert his views into what had been a bilateral dialogue between Moscow and Beijing. Russian President Vladimir Putin is eager to keep Xi close as a counterweight to the U.S., which has sided with Ukraine.
“I believe 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,” Zelensky said in a Facebook post.
An official readout on his website called the conversation “productive” and said it leads the way toward “possible interaction with the aim of establishing a just and sustainable peace for Ukraine.”
Zelensky emphasized the need to regain all Ukrainian lands and stated, “There can be no peace at the expense of territorial compromises.” In an indirect reference to U.S. reports that China had considered supplying weapons to Russia for its war, Zelensky’s office said he asked countries to refrain from doing so because “any support — even partial — is converted by Russia into the continuation of its aggression, into its further rejection of peace.” China has said it won’t supply weapons to either side in the conflict.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said Beijing’s “core stance is to facilitate talks for peace,” announcing that an envoy — a former ambassador to Russia — would visit Ukraine in pursuit of a “political settlement.”
Vladimir Putin is relishing Xi Jinping’s visit and their shared hostility toward the U.S., but not all of Russia’s and China’s interests align.
The statement struck a positive tone, giving a nod to Kyiv’s insistence that its territory cannot be broken up by Russia’s annexations of land while making clear that Beijing values its long-standing ties with Ukraine.
“Mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity is the political foundation of China-Ukraine relations,” the statement said. “China’s readiness to develop relations with Ukraine is consistent and clear-cut. No matter how the international situation evolves, China will work with Ukraine to advance mutually beneficial cooperation.”
Analysts expressed skepticism about the prospects for peace.
The call balances China’s dialogue with Russia by showing it is “recognizing Ukraine’s leadership and indicating Ukraine is an important entity,” said political science professor Kimberly Marten of Barnard College at Columbia University in New York.
Russian private military contractor Wagner is busy boosting its brand as its fighters try to subdue Ukraine, trading secrecy for war propaganda movies.
But, she added in an interview with the Associated Press, unless undisclosed details reveal otherwise, “it’s a nonstarter. It’s pro-Russian. I would not guess that this holds a lot of significance for ending the war.”
She noted the Chinese statement didn’t call for Russia to leave occupied areas or brand Russia as an aggressor, and refers to the situation as “a crisis, rather than a war.”
Elizabeth Wishnick, of the U.S.-based think tank CNA and Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute, noted in an email that the Chinese statement about the call contains “no mention of a Russian troop withdrawal, which, to my mind, makes this a less than serious initiative and unlikely to contribute in any major way to ending the war, which will likely be decided on the battlefield.”
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commended China’s approach, praising Beijing’s “readiness to strive to establish a [peace] negotiations process,” while slamming what she called Kyiv’s “rejection of any sound initiatives aimed at a settlement.”
China affirms that it respects the sovereignty of former Soviet republics after a Chinese ambassador caused a stir with remarks suggesting otherwise.
The White House described it as a positive development, allowing Xi to hear Ukraine’s view of the “illegal, unprovoked invasion.”
“We think that’s a good thing,” White House National Security Council spokesman John F. Kirby said.
Talks between the two leaders had been anticipated for weeks, after China produced a 12-point proposal to end the war, although it did not contain details.
Russia and Ukraine are far apart in their terms for peace. The Kremlin wants Kyiv to acknowledge Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and of the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, which most nations have denounced as illegal. Ukraine has rejected the demands and ruled out any talks with Russia until its troops pull back from all occupied territories.
Belarus’ president has welcomed thousands of Russian troops to his country but has avoided having it take part directly in the fighting in Ukraine.
Zelensky said in an interview with the Associated Press in late March that he hadn’t spoken with Xi since the war began and extended an invitation for him to visit Ukraine.
China has announced that it is keen to act as mediator in the war, which has re-energized NATO.
With the step, Xi’s government reinforced China’s claim to being neutral in the war, despite blocking efforts at the United Nations to condemn the Kremlin’s invasion.
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Whereas Zelensky has moved his country closer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and persuaded alliance members to send Ukraine sophisticated modern weapons to help defeat Russia, Beijing has echoed the Kremlin line in accusing the West of provoking the conflict and “fanning the flames” by providing Ukraine with defensive arms.
In February, when China called for a cease-fire and peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, Zelensky cautiously welcomed Beijing’s involvement. But he said success would
depend on actions, not words.
Last month, Putin warmly welcomed Xi to the Kremlin, in what was seen as a powerful message to Western leaders that their efforts to isolate Moscow over the fighting in Ukraine have fallen short.
Meanwhile, Zelensky on Wednesday used the 37th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster to repeat his warnings about the potential threat of a new atomic catastrophe in Ukraine amid the war with Russia.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg defiantly declares that Ukraine deserves to join the alliance, a prospect Russia calls an existential threat.
Zelensky drew a parallel between the April 26, 1986, Chernobyl nuclear disaster and Moscow’s brief seizure of the plant and its radiation-contaminated exclusion zone after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Last year, the occupier not only seized the [Chernobyl] nuclear power plant, but also endangered the entire world again,” Zelensky said in a post in English on the messaging app Telegram
Elsewhere, Ukrainian and Russian officials announced the latest prisoner exchange, saying 44 Ukrainian and 40 Russian POWs were released this week. The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram that the Ukrainians included soldiers, sailors, border and national guards, and two civilians.
Ukrainian forces have crossed the Dnipro River, fueling speculation that Kyiv’s long-awaited spring counteroffensive against Russia may be at hand.
The head of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, Yurii Malashko, said that overnight the Russians struck 19 civilian areas with 53 artillery attacks, six rocket attacks, seven drone attacks and one airstrike.
At least two civilians were killed and 13 others were wounded in Ukraine on Tuesday and overnight into Wednesday, the Ukrainian presidential office said.
Also, an Italian journalist in Ukraine, Corrado Zunino, was injured and his interpreter, Bogdan Bitik, killed in the southern city of Kherson. Zunino, a correspondent for La Repubblica daily, told the newspaper he suspected Russian snipers hit him after passing through Ukrainian-manned checkpoints.
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