Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has once again extended an invitation to Xi Jinping, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the president of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), asking him to visit the war-torn country.
In an interview published by the Associated Press (AP) on Wednesday, March 29th, President Zelensky took the opportunity to state his desire to engage directly with the Chinese leader—who, despite having maintained exceptionally close ties to Moscow amid the conflict—has sought to position himself and Beijing as a potential peacemaker in the escalating war.
“We are ready to see him here,” Zelensky stated emphatically. The Ukrainian president last month said the country’s diplomats had previously—and multiple times—signaled his willingness and desire to meet face-to-face with President Xi, who, of the five leaders of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, is the only who has not made the journey to Kyiv.
“I want to speak with him. I had contact with him before full-scale war. But during all this year, more than one year, I didn’t have,” President Zelensky continued.
The communist leader, who has formally proclaimed China as a “neutral” party to the conflict, visited President Vladimir Putin in the Russian capital last week, leaving western leaders wondering if China is prepared to assist Moscow by providing it with much-needed weapons and ammunition. It was Xi’s first state visit overseas this year.
Before the state visit, President Xi penned an article titled “Friendship, Cooperation and Common Development,” where he said,
no country is superior to others, no model of governance is universal, and no single country [an implicit reference to the U.S.] should dictate the international order. The common interest of all humankind is in a world that is united and peaceful, rather than divided and volatile.
On March 25th, a few days after hosting Xi and his delegation, which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) referred to as a “new chapter of China-Russia friendship,” Putin announced that Russia will transfer some of its tactical nuclear weapons to neighboring Belarus—one Moscow’s closest, if not its closest, allies.
Putin’s move comes in response to—and ahead of—an anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive that was set to be spearheaded by Western tanks that arrived in the theater on Monday, March 27th, according to a statement from Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.
The long-awaited arrival of the Western battle tanks paired with Russia’s transfer of nuclear weapons to Belarus marks a significant escalation to the war.
