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During the summit held on May 14 in Beijing, Xi Jinping confided to Donald Trump that Vladimir Putin might end up regretting invading Ukraine, according to a report this Tuesday from the Financial Times citing several sources familiar with the U.S. assessment of the meeting.
The comments from the Chinese leader represent a notable shift from previous conversations: a source familiar with the meetings between Xi and former President Joe Biden noted that, although those encounters were "candid and direct" regarding Russia and Ukraine, Xi had never offered a personal assessment of Putin or the war.
Neither the White House nor the Chinese embassy in Washington responded to requests for comment. The official document that the Trump administration published on Sunday, May 17, regarding the Beijing summit makes no mention of discussions about Putin or the Ukrainian conflict.
The revelation comes precisely on the day that Putin arrived in China for a two-day visit, just four days after Xi welcomed Trump in Beijing for the first State visit by a U.S. president in almost nine years.
During that same summit, Trump also proposed that the United States, China, and Russia join forces to combat the International Criminal Court, arguing that the interests of the three countries were aligned. The Trump administration has maintained a strong opposition to that court, which it accuses of politicization and disregarding U.S. national sovereignty.
The underlying military context is key to understanding Xi's comment. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the pace of Russian advancement has steadily slowed: from 14.92 km² per day between October 2024 and March 2025, to just 5.16 km² per day in the first quarter of 2026. During the same period, Ukraine regained over 400 km² in the directions of Oleksandrivka and Hulyaipole.
The stalled front coincides with an intensification of Ukrainian drone attacks. On May 16 and 17, Ukraine launched one of its largest assaults against the Moscow region; Mayor Sobyanin confirmed that Russian defenses shot down over 120 drones.
The Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelenski described those attacks as "completely justified" following the record number of Russian airstrikes against Kiev the previous week.
The attacks came after a three-day ceasefire brokered by Trump that allowed Putin to celebrate Victory Day without the risk of Ukrainian reprisals.
The Democratic congressman Brendan Boyle, delegate to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, summarized the new reality of the battlefield: “Brave Ukrainians have reinvented warfare in the same way World War I redefined war for the 21st century. Drone warfare has become the norm and is revolutionizing the way we fight.”
Anton Gerashchenko, former advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior, described Putin's visit to Beijing on his social media as an unmistakable sign of Russia's growing dependence: "Russia has lost its position as a relatively autonomous geopolitical pole and is increasingly sinking into dependence on China."
Regarding Putin's statements about a “climate of mutual understanding and trust” with Beijing, Gerashchenko added: “It sounded as if Putin wanted to convince himself that this is true.”
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