Zelensky Looks to Beijing to Rein In Moscow as Trump Ties Fray
Zelensky says he hopes China can use its influence over Moscow to help end the war, hours after jabbing at U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff's praise of Putin as a 'humanitarian.'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hopes Beijing can use its “influence” over Moscow to help bring the war to an end, according to a report from the South China Morning Post. The appeal to China lands as Kyiv’s relationship with the Trump administration shows new signs of strain.
The Beijing comment surfaced the same week Zelensky took a pointed jab at U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. In an interview with ABC News published Oct. 23, Zelensky said of himself: “I’m a normal person. I’m just human. Maybe not such a big humanitarian as Putin.” The remark was a direct response to Witkoff, who had called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a humanitarian” following Moscow’s release of an American prisoner on Oct. 21.
Hours after Witkoff’s comment, Russia struck Kyiv’s city center with ballistic missiles and cluster munitions, killing two people and injuring dozens, including children, according to the Kyiv Independent. Zelensky has not publicly tied the strike to Witkoff’s remark, but the timing has sharpened criticism in Kyiv of the administration’s rhetoric toward Moscow.
A relationship under pressure
Zelensky’s comments come against a backdrop of what the Kyiv Independent described as unraveling U.S.-Ukraine relations. Among the points of friction cited: restricted battlefield speeds on Starlink terminals relied on by Ukrainian forces, delivery of only 24 air defense missiles over the past 90 days, new U.S. sanctions waivers benefiting Moscow, and pressure on Kyiv to halt long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries.
The sanctions relief has already produced a tangible outcome. A cargo of Russian diesel tied to a Putin-Trump deal is now headed for the United States, marking the first import of its kind since Washington banned Russian oil purchases in 2022.
Zelensky has separately warned allies that Putin’s territorial war aims remain within reach absent sustained Western pressure, a warning that predates this week’s diplomatic friction but underscores Kyiv’s anxiety that Washington’s posture toward Moscow is softening at a critical moment.
Beijing’s unclear role
China has maintained economic and diplomatic ties with Russia throughout the war while officially calling for a negotiated settlement. Beijing has not publicly responded to Zelensky’s appeal for it to use its leverage over Moscow, and it is not clear what specific steps, if any, Kyiv is asking China to take. China’s state media has previously cast Beijing as a neutral party open to a mediating role, though it has taken no public action to pressure Russia toward concessions.
The appeal to Beijing also arrives as the broader U.S.-brokered peace process moves back into motion. Technical teams from Ukraine, Russia and the United States are set to resume trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi in November, Zelensky confirmed, following a period of localized, Washington-brokered pauses in fighting, including the Oleshky ceasefire effort that the White House has credited in part to First Lady Melania Trump.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also laid out his own read on Moscow’s objectives ahead of the next round of U.S.-led diplomacy, according to the Kyiv Independent, though the administration has not detailed what concessions it will seek from either side when talks resume.
What to watch
Zelensky’s turn toward Beijing marks a shift in rhetoric for a Ukrainian leader who has spent nearly four years leaning almost exclusively on Washington, Brussels and NATO capitals for both military and diplomatic support. Whether the appeal reflects a genuine recalibration of Kyiv’s diplomatic strategy, or simply public pressure aimed at a wavering Trump administration, is not yet clear.
For now, the practical levers remain in Washington and Moscow. The Abu Dhabi talks in November will be the next concrete test of whether the administration’s parallel tracks — sanctions relief and diesel imports from Russia on one side, continued air defense shipments to Ukraine on the other — can produce a durable ceasefire rather than the localized pauses seen so far.
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