Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy by telephone on Wednesday for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fulfilling a long-standing goal of Kyiv, which had publicly sought such talks for months.
Zelenskyy immediately signalled the importance of the chance to open closer relations with Russia’s most powerful friend, naming a former cabinet minister as Ukraine’s new ambassador to Beijing.
Describing the hour-long phone call as “long and meaningful,” Zelenskyy tweeted: “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.”
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