Xi Jinping and Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak in first known contact since Russia’s invasion

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spoke by telephone on Wednesday

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spoke by telephone on Wednesday, in the first known contact between the two leaders since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said he “had a long and meaningful phone call” with Xi. The Chinese state news media said the two leaders had discussed “the Ukraine crisis” and their nations’ bilateral relationship.

A summary of the conversation published by the Chinese state news media made no mention of Russia and did not use the word “war.” Xi reiterated points Beijing has made in the past, saying that China’s “core position” was to “promote peace and talks.” Xi also said “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity” was the “political basis of China-Ukrainian relations.”

Zelenskyy said on Twitter that the call would help “give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations.”

The Chinese state media added that China would “send a special representative of the Chinese government on Eurasian affairs to visit Ukraine and “other countries to conduct in-depth communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.”

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion 14 months ago, Zelenskyy had repeatedly expressed interest in speaking with Xi. China, though it has declared itself neutral in the war and has refrained from criticizing the invasion by Russia, its close partner. Many Western officials believe China may be the only country with enough clout with both Ukraine and Russia to help negotiate an end to the conflict.

But Chinese officials had long dodged questions about whether Xi would speak with Zelenskyy, even as the Chinese leader spoke or met with President Vladimir Putin of Russia multiple times, including during a trip to Moscow on March 20. Before that visit, China had issued what it framed as a peace plan for Ukraine, seemingly positioning itself as a potential mediator. China and Russia’s joint statement after the visit made little mention of the war, instead focusing on deepening ties between the two countries.

The call took place days after China’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, caused a diplomatic firestorm in Europe after he questioned the sovereignty of post-Soviet nations like Ukraine in a televised interview.

Before the war, China-Ukraine ties had been strengthening. By 2019, China was Ukraine’s largest trading partner and the top importer of its barley and iron ore, according to a report by the Council on Foreign Relations. Ukraine was also China’s largest corn supplier and its second-largest arms supplier. China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was a discarded Soviet vessel bought from Ukraine that the Chinese navy refurbished.

The last known contact between Xi and Zelenskyy was a phone call in January 2022, just weeks before the invasion, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic bilateral ties.

But after the invasion, the official Chinese news media adopted many of the Kremlin’s talking points and disinformation, accusing NATO of instigating the conflict and refusing to call it an invasion.

Even so, Ukraine has been careful not to antagonize China, mindful of the decisive role the latter could play in the war. Zelenskyy, for example, called China’s position paper on the war “an important signal,” and has said that “I really want to believe” China would not supply weapons to Russia. (Western officials have suggested that Beijing may do so, despite China’s denials.)

China, for its part, has insisted that both Ukraine and Russia are its friends and rejected accusations that Xi’s lack of contact with Zelenskyy undermined China’s professed neutrality. Officials have pointed to a conversation between the two countries’ foreign ministers in March, shortly before Xi’s Moscow trip, during which China said peace talks should resume, according to a Chinese summary of the conversation.

But Chinese analysts also acknowledged that Beijing had far more practical interest in tending to its relationship with Moscow than Kyiv.

“Today’s Ukraine is still at war, China’s investments there have been bombed, and we don’t know what Ukraine will look like in the future,” said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Nanjing University. “Is there still a China-Ukraine relationship?”

Author: Vivian Wang and David Pierson

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.