Xi Jinping Tells Trump That Putin May Regret Invading Ukraine

AP Newsis [The Financial News] Chinese President Xi Jinping is said to have told U. S. President Donald Trump during their summit last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin may eventually regret invading Ukraine.
On the 18th local time, the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing sources, that Xi made the unusual remark while discussing a broad agenda that included the Ukraine issue. The FT said this stood in contrast to Xi's meetings with former U. S.
President Joe Biden, during which he spoke candidly and directly about Russia and Ukraine but did not offer direct assessments of the war or Putin. Putin is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on the 19th for a summit with Xi. Xi's remarks came as the war in Ukraine enters its fourth year and remains deadlocked.
Analysts say the battlefield situation has shifted significantly, especially as Ukrainian forces have effectively struck Russian troops and key targets with drone attacks. On the 17th, Ukraine carried out a large-scale drone attack targeting sites near Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referred to Russia's massive air assault on Kyiv last week and stressed that the retaliatory strike on Moscow was "entirely justified. " The Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America and the White House did not comment on the report.
The White House's fact sheet on the U. S.
-China summit, released on the 17th, made no mention of the war in Ukraine or Putin. The FT also reported that Xi proposed an unusual idea during last week's U.
S. -China summit, suggesting that the United States, China and Russia should join forces against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
According to people familiar with the talks, Trump suggested a joint response, saying the three countries' interests align on the ICC issue. The Trump administration has long criticized the ICC, saying it has become politicized, abused its power, ignored U.
S. sovereignty and overstepped its judicial authority.
Some administration officials have even described the court as a tool of so-called lawfare aimed at the United States.
AP Newsis [The Financial News] Chinese President Xi Jinping is said to have told U. S. President Donald Trump during their summit last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin may eventually regret invading Ukraine.
jjyoon@fnnews.com Yoon Jae-jun Reporter