Xi told Trump Putin could come to regret the Ukraine war, FT reportes

During last week's Beijing summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Donald Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin might come to regret his 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to several people familiar with the US assessment of the talks, the Financial Times reports.

The assessment is notable for its timing: Putin arrived in China on 19 May — four days after Xi hosted Trump — for his own summit with Xi, marking 25 years since then-president Jiang Zemin signed the Sino-Russian friendship treaty with Putin.

Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, three weeks after visiting Beijing, where he and Xi announced what they called a "no-limits" partnership. His two-day visit this week falls precisely 25 years after the signing of the Sino-Russian friendship treaty.

Xi's Private Assessment

Xi's remarks about Putin appeared to go further than anything he had said previously on the subject. According to a person familiar with Xi's meetings with former President Joe Biden, while those talks had been "frank and direct" on Russia and Ukraine, Xi had not offered any assessment of Putin personally or of the war itself. No such restraint was evident in Beijing last week.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The White House declined to comment. A factsheet the Trump administration published on Sunday about the Beijing summit contained no reference to conversations about Putin or Ukraine.

Trump's ICC Proposal

The Ukraine discussion was not the only notable exchange. During the same summit, Trump suggested that the United States, China and Russia should join forces to combat the International Criminal Court, telling Xi their interests were aligned on the matter, according to people familiar with the talks.

The White House declined to comment on the ICC remarks, though the Trump administration has previously voiced opposition to the court, accusing it of "politicisation, abuse of power, disregard for US national sovereignty and illegitimate judicial over-reach." Some officials have described it as an instrument for what they call lawfare against America.

The War's Current State

Xi's comment about Putin came against the backdrop of a conflict that has ground into stalemate after four years, as Ukraine's drone campaign has proven increasingly effective against Russian forces and targets.

"The brave Ukrainians… have reinvented warfare in much the same way the first world war reinvented warfare for the 21st century," said Brendan Boyle, the Philadelphia congressman and lead Democrat to the US delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. "Drone warfare has now become the norm and is revolutionising the way we wage war."

On Sunday, Ukraine conducted drone strikes near Moscow that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as "entirely justified," following Russia's record aerial attack on Kyiv the previous week. The strikes came after a three-day ceasefire brokered by Trump that allowed Putin to hold his annual Victory Day parade without the risk of Ukrainian drone attacks.

The Biden administration had frequently accused China of supplying dual-use items to Russia to sustain its campaign in Ukraine. The Trump administration has raised similar concerns, though less frequently.