Without China, Putin's Russia is nothing.
Trump declares Russia in 'big economic trouble' and says Ukraine can recover all lost land—his strongest pro-Ukraine statement to date. Zelenskyy believes Trump can leverage US influence to convince China to stop supporting Russia and pressure Moscow to end the war.
- Trump said Ukraine can regain all lost territory since 2022 invasion
- Zelenskyy believes Trump can persuade Xi Jinping to pressure Russia
- UN documents systematic torture of Ukrainian civilians in occupied areas
- Russia has cut external power to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant 10 times
- Russia probing NATO air defenses with long-range drones
Zelenskyy hails Trump's strongest support yet for Ukraine, saying he can persuade Xi Jinping to pressure Russia. Trump claims Ukraine can regain all lost territory as Russia faces economic collapse.
On Tuesday, as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy sat down with Donald Trump and came away believing he had found an unlikely lever for ending the war. Zelenskyy told Fox News that Trump possessed something Ukraine had long lacked: the ability to shift China's calculus. "I think that President Trump can change the attitude of Xi Jinping to this war," Zelenskyy said, speaking from the sidelines of the assembly. The reasoning was straightforward. China, in Zelenskyy's view, had never truly committed to stopping the conflict. Beijing continues to buy Russian oil and, according to Kyiv's long-standing complaint, supplies Moscow with materials useful for waging war. If China wanted the fighting to end, Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council, it could compel Russia to do so. "Without China, Putin's Russia is nothing," he said.
What made this moment significant was what Trump himself had just said. In a post on Truth Social after meeting Zelenskyy, the US president delivered what amounted to his strongest endorsement of Ukraine's position yet. Trump claimed that Ukraine could recover all the territory it had lost since Russia's 2022 invasion. He went further, attacking Russia's military performance. A war that should have taken a genuine military power less than a week to win had instead dragged on for three and a half years, Trump wrote. Russia and Putin, he added, were in "big economic trouble." For Zelenskyy, this represented a "big shift"—a phrase he used to describe the change in Trump's rhetoric.
The diplomatic optimism, however, existed alongside grimmer realities on the ground. Zelenskyy disclosed that Russia was launching long-range drones into NATO airspace, not to strike targets but to probe the alliance's defenses and identify vulnerabilities. "He will try to find weak places in Europe, in NATO countries," Zelenskyy said at a UN press conference. Simultaneously, a United Nations human rights office released findings documenting what it called "widespread" and "systematic" torture of Ukrainian civilian detainees held in Russian-occupied areas. The report detailed consistent patterns of serious violations of international law since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, including sexual violence.
In another sign of Russian pressure on critical infrastructure, Ukraine's energy ministry reported that external power lines to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant had been severed for the tenth time. Each incident, the ministry stated, underscored that Russian occupation itself posed the primary threat to the plant's safe operation. The statement amounted to a call for decisive international action to remove Russian forces from the facility. These developments—the diplomatic opening with Trump, the documented torture, the probing of NATO defenses, the repeated attacks on nuclear infrastructure—painted a picture of a conflict at an inflection point, where diplomatic possibility and military danger coexisted without resolving each other.
Notable Quotes
I think that President Trump can change the attitude of Xi Jinping to this war, because China, we don't feel that China wants to finish this war.— Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President
Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win.— Donald Trump, US President
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Zelenskyy think Trump can move China when Ukraine's own diplomacy hasn't?
Because Trump has leverage Ukraine doesn't. He can speak to Beijing's economic interests in ways Kyiv cannot. Trump's relationship with Xi is different—it's peer-to-peer, transactional. Zelenskyy is betting that Trump will use that relationship.
But has Trump actually committed to pressuring China, or is Zelenskyy reading into the moment?
That's the open question. Trump said Ukraine can regain all lost territory and called Russia economically broken. Those are strong words. But words and action are different things. Zelenskyy is interpreting Trump's rhetoric as a sign he's willing to engage more deeply.
What does China actually want from this war?
Officially, nothing. China isn't a combatant. But it benefits from a weakened Russia that depends on Chinese trade, and from a prolonged conflict that keeps the West distracted. Pressuring Russia to end the war would mean losing those advantages.
So Zelenskyy is asking Trump to do something that goes against China's interests?
Exactly. Which is why Trump's leverage matters more than Zelenskyy's. If anyone can convince Beijing that ending the war serves its interests better than prolonging it, it would be Trump. But that's a very big if.
What about the torture findings? How does that fit into the diplomatic picture?
It doesn't, really. The UN report documents what's happening to Ukrainian civilians right now, in occupied territory. It's a reminder that while diplomats talk in New York, people are suffering in ways that won't be resolved by negotiation alone.