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On Apr. 26, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke over the phone with China’s President Xi Jinping in their first conversation ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to AFP.

In a tweet by Zelensky on the same day, he said that he had a “long and meaningful phone call” with Xi.

The phone conversation, along with the appointment of Ukraine’s Ambassador to China, “will give a powerful impetus to the development of [their] bilateral relations,” wrote the Ukrainian President.

Pavel Ryabikin, a former cabinet minister, was named as Ukraine’s new Ambassador to Beijing, according to a decree cited by Reuters.

I had a long and meaningful phone call with 🇨🇳 President Xi Jinping. 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.

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 26, 2023

 

The call

Zelensky had repeatedly expressed interest in speaking with China's president, CNN reported.

During the call, Xi said that dialogue and negotiations were “the only viable way out” of the Ukrainian crisis, and that a nuclear war can be won by none, according to Chinese state media Xinhua.

China will also be sending their “Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs” to Ukraine and other nations to carry out in-depth comprehensive talks on the political resolution of the war, Xi told Zelensky.

The representative, Li Hui, earlier served as China’s Ambassador to Russia from 2009 to 2019, according to CNN.

In a statement of the call issued by the Chinese foreign ministry on Apr. 26, Xi pointed out that “China always stands on the side of peace” in the Russian-Ukrainian war and will uphold its key position of “[facilitating] talks for peace”.

The Chinese president stressed that mutual respect for one another’s sovereignty and territorial integrity made up “the political foundation” of their bilateral relations and that China will continue to work with Ukraine “no matter how the international situation changes”, Xinhua reported.

The reference to territorial integrity may be significant, as Russia forcibly annexed parts of Eastern Ukraine in 2022 and Crimea in 2014.

Notably, Xi also avoided using the word "war" to describe the Russia-Ukraine conflict, instead referring it as the "Ukrainian crisis", as pointed out by The Guardian.

Attempt at conflict resolution

The phone call lasted an hour and represented a notable effort in the attempted resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian war, AFP reported.

Zelensky said in a later Facebook post that "[no] one wants peace more than the Ukrainian people".

He called for the restoration of his country's territorial integrity within the 1991 borders and noted that "there can be no peace at the expense of territorial compromises".

The White House also hailed the call, with its spokesperson John Kirby calling it a “good thing”, but questioned whether there would be any “sort of meaningful peace movement, or plan, or proposal” afterwards, according to Reuters.

The Xi-Zelensky conversation also comes a few months after China called for the ceasing of hostilities and resumption of peace talks in a 12-point document issued in February 2023.

Russian-Chinese relations

Russia and China pledged to uphold their “no-limits partnership” just weeks before the former invaded Ukraine.

After the war broke out, China adopted a neutral stance, refusing to condemn Russia or describing its aggression on Ukraine as an "invasion".

On the other hand, it continued to mention the importance of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and so far has not appeared to be supplying Russia with weapons.

The phone call follows Xi’s visit to Russia in March 2023, during which he and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed their agreement on various issues, such as their common view of the U.S. as a “threat”, according to an earlier report by CNN.

It also comes after the comments by China’s envoy to France, Lu Shaye, drew ire from various European states as he had questioned the status of ex-Soviet countries including Ukraine.

China later walked back on Lu’s comments, reiterating that they respected the sovereign status of post-Soviet countries and claimed that those were his personal views, Reuters reported.

Not ready for peace?

The Ukrainian-Russian war is in its 14th month and there have been signs of Ukraine’s plans to launch a spring counteroffensive, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Besides the movement of Ukrainian troops to the east of Dnieper River, the country’s Western allies have recently sent it more sophisticated weapons, such as U.S.-manufactured Patriot guided missile systems, leading to speculations of an upcoming counteroffensive.

The heaviest fighting remained in the town of Bakhmut, where both sides had been deadlocked for more than eight months.

Earlier, after meeting with Xi in March, Putin said in a press conference that Russia viewed China’s peace plan as a “basis for settling the conflict in Ukraine”, but said that the West and Kyiv were not ready, according to the BBC.

In response to the phone call between Xi and Zelensky, Russia’s foreign ministry commented that they noted “the readiness of the Chinese side to make efforts to establish a negotiation process,” The Guardian reported.

Related:

Top images via Getty (AFP/Noel Celis) & Zelensky’s Facebook page