Zelenskiy’s initiative is a test of China’s push to expand its influence on the global stage while maintaining its own neutrality in the Ukraine war. Xi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, a visit that further strengthened the economic and political partnership between the two countries. Now, Kiev is trying to counter Russian overtures to China with its own diplomatic efforts.
“We are ready to meet Xi Jinping in Ukraine,” Zelensky told reporters last month that Ukrainian diplomats had communicated to Beijing His willingness to meet with Xi Jinping.
“We would like to have a meeting,” he told reporters. “It’s in Ukraine’s current interests.”
Xi has not spoken to Zelensky since the war between Russia and Ukraine erupted, but Beijing released a document last month calling for peace talks, ambiguously and signaling a desire to play a greater role in any settlement effect.
Asked about Zelensky’s invitation to meet at a regular news conference on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning said: “On the Ukraine issue, China maintains communication with all relevant parties, including Ukraine. Regarding the specific issues you mentioned, I have no information to provide.”
According to the “Wall Street Journal” (The Wall Street Journal) report, the outside world had previously expected Xi Jinping to have the first phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war after his visit to Moscow. But Zelensky told the Associated Press that the two had not been in touch recently.
“I want to talk to him. I was in contact with him before the war broke out in full force. But for more than a year, we have not been in touch,” Zelensky said. He also told The Associated Press that Xi did not fully support Russia’s war on Ukraine during his visit to Russia last week.
Washington has been wary of Mr. Xi’s recent diplomacy, accusing him of being a cover for Mr. Putin. The United States said last month that China was considering sending artillery and drones to the Russian military. So far, China does not appear to have supplied Russia with lethal weapons, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said. China has denied such considerations. China provides vital economic support to Russia under Western sanctions and sells it microchips and other technology that can be used for military purposes.
Asked about Zelensky’s call for a meeting with Xi, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the Russian government highly appreciates China’s balanced stance on Ukraine, and that Russia is not concerned about Xi’s contacts with Ukraine. Not authorized to make recommendations.
In addition to its close Western allies, Ukraine has also sought to engage with a wider group of global leaders. In addition to the Japanese prime minister’s visit to Kiev earlier this month, Ukraine is cooperating with Saudi Arabia, which brokered a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia last year. Saudi Arabia is a conservative monarchy whose relations with Russia have grown rapidly in recent years. Zelensky also wrote a letter to Xi, which he handed over to Chinese officials at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.
“At the end of the day, China is more interested in strengthening the relationship between China and Russia than strengthening the relationship between China and Ukraine,” said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund. “If you look at it from Zelensky’s point of view, why not engage with China, because in the end China can have influence over Russia. I suspect no one will have much influence over Putin, but Xi Jinping has a close relationship with Putin .”
Separately, Ukraine said Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian warplane near the eastern city of Bakhmut, which has become a key contention in Ukraine’s war, while repelling multiple attempts by Russian forces to capture it .
Bakhmut is a small city in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. This battlefield has become the central battlefield for Russia to attack Ukraine; Russia and Ukraine have been fighting fiercely in this area for more than six months. The symbolic and strategic significance is growing. The Ukrainian army has been holding off overwhelming Russian firepower in Bakhmut since the Russian army began its offensive in the area last summer.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Zelensky said that if Russian forces managed to capture Bakhmut, the Russian government could start building international support for a negotiated solution to the conflict that would force Ukraine to make unacceptable compromises .
“If Putin could smell some blood — detect our weakness — he would attack, attack, attack,” he said.
If Russia captures Bakhmut, Putin will “sell that victory to the West, to the Russian people, to China, to Iran,” Zelensky said. Zelensky also invited Chinese leader Xi Jinping to visit Ukraine and said Xi did not express full support for Russia’s war on Ukraine when he visited Moscow last week.
The Ukrainian air force said in a statement early Wednesday that its gunners shot down a Russian Su-24 (Su-24) bomber on the Bakhmut front a day earlier.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army stated in the morning’s update on the situation: “The enemy made further attempts to capture the city of Bakhmut. However, our defenders repelled several enemy attacks and bravely held the city.”
In recent months, the Russian army, led by the paramilitary Wagner Group, has thrown heavy firepower and waves of new recruits in an attempt to take Bakhmut. The scramble has leveled much of the city and taken a toll on both sides, leading some Western military analysts to question the wisdom of Ukraine continuing to defend the city.
The Russian offensive on Bahmut intensified in January, when Russian troops captured the nearby mining town of Soledar. The offensive against Bakhmut has slowed in recent weeks as the pace of Russian attacks has slowed and Wagner’s leaders have complained about a lack of ammunition. A Ukrainian commander in the region said on Tuesday that Ukraine held off Russian forces at Bakhmut and helped the country retake territory elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency said Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had visited Ukraine’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which has been shut down since Russian troops seized it last year. The security issue has aroused the concern of the international community. Grossi said earlier this week that he would go to Zaporozhye to assess the safety and security situation.
Separately, several explosions hit the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, knocking out power to parts of the city, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials.
Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, posted on his Telegram page: “Melitopol – loud bang! Several explosions sounded simultaneously and all districts of Melitopol I hear you.” He said: “Russian occupiers are now on fire.”
Russia’s official TASS news agency reported that an early-morning explosion in Melitopol damaged the city’s power supply system, causing power outages in parts of the city and nearby villages. There were no casualties.
The Ukrainian military also warned on Wednesday that “further missile attacks and airstrikes across Ukraine are very likely”. In recent months, Russian forces have launched multiple missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian civilian homes and infrastructure far from the front lines, in what Ukrainian and Western officials say is Russia’s failure to make progress on Ukraine’s eastern front Part of a strategy for the general morale of the Ukrainian populace.