- The Ukrainian leader has urged Beijing to use its economic and political power to press Moscow to comply with international norms
- In this exclusive interview with the Post, Zelensky also says he hopes China and other countries will ‘unite’ to support Ukraine’s reconstruction
Ukraine is seeking an opportunity to speak “directly” with China about its ongoing war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, noting that his country had consistently sought close ties with Beijing in the years preceding the conflict.
In an exclusive interview with the Post, the Ukrainian leader urged the Asian superpower to use its outsize political and economic influence over Russia to bring the fighting to a stop.
“It’s a very powerful state. It’s a powerful economy … So (it) can politically, economically influence Russia. And China is [also a] permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Zelensky said. The 40-minute interview over Zoom was his first with an Asian media outlet since Russia’s invasion of his country on February 24.
“I would like to talk directly. I had one conversation with [President] Xi Jinping that was a year ago,” he said. “Since the beginning of the large-scale aggression on February 24, we have asked officially for a conversation, but we (haven’t had) any conversation with China even though I believe that would be helpful.”
While he hoped China would take a different approach to the conflict – it has thus far resisted censuring key economic partner Russia over the invasion – Zelensky said he had always wanted “the relationship between Ukraine and China to be reinforced and to be developed every year”.
The two countries marked three decades of formal bilateral ties last year.
In 2021, China was Ukraine’s top trading partner, with a trade turnover worth almost US$19 billion, according to figures from Ukraine’s embassy in China.
