Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he asked U.S. President Donald Trump to press China’s leader to use Beijing’s influence over Moscow in a diplomatic effort to get Russia to end its 4½-yearlong invasion of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy told reporters he has not yet received feedback from the White House about Trump’s talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping but expects to learn the outcome.
Zelenskyy, who is keen to muster more international support for Ukraine’s defense, was in the United States this week on a trip coinciding with the U.N. General Assembly. He met with Trump on Tuesday.
NATO countries have called China a “decisive enabler” of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Zelenskyy shared more details of his U.S. trip in voice messages to a group of journalists.
Zelenskyy says the US wants initial technical talks
Washington is pushing for a three-way meeting involving delegations from the U.S., Ukraine and Russia, with officials holding technical talks in that format without the countries' leaders, Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine is waiting for the U.S. to propose a date for those meetings, he said, adding that American officials suggested the United Arab Emirates as the location for these talks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Putin and Trump during their call earlier this month discussed holding such a meeting in the near future. “As of now, I can’t give you any specifics,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin will make its decisions, including on the possible resumption of the negotiation process - Vladimir Putin
Representatives from the three countries held three rounds of trilateral negotiations early this year, twice in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, and once in Geneva, but the talks achieved no significant breakthroughs.
Speaking to reporters in St. Petersburg on Friday night, Putin decried recent Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia and on Russian-held areas of Ukraine and said that while “proposals to resume the talks are all on the table,” Moscow “will think carefully about what we need to do in response.”
The Kremlin will make its decisions, “including on the possible resumption of the negotiation process, based on the interests of the Russian Federation,” Putin stressed.
