China Backs US-Russia Ukraine Talks as Kyiv Is Sidelined and Musk Attacks Zelenskyy

At the G20 meeting in Johannesburg, China's foreign minister Wang Yi gave his backing to Donald Trump's effort to work with Russia toward ending the war in Ukraine. According to a statement from his ministry, Wang said China supports all efforts conducive to peace, including the recent consensus reached between the United States and Russia, and that Beijing is willing to keep playing a constructive role in a political resolution of the crisis.

What he left out was notable. A week earlier, at a meeting in Munich, Wang had said Ukraine must be involved in any further peace talks. In Johannesburg he did not repeat that point. He also met Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines, telling him that relations between their countries were moving towards a higher level and broader dimension. Lavrov had said earlier that the two men would meet in Moscow soon for their next talks.

The consensus Wang praised was reached without Kyiv, and the Trump camp's treatment of Ukraine's president has been sharp. Elon Musk, posting on X, which he owns, claimed Volodymyr Zelenskyy is despised by the people of Ukraine and would lose an election if one were held. He was defending Trump's decision to sideline Ukraine from the US-Russia talks. Musk also repeated Trump's false claim that Zelenskyy has low approval ratings. The most recent poll available puts him at 57%, an extremely high figure compared with his peers across Europe.

In the same post, Musk vowed to fix Community Notes, the X feature that lets users fact-check potentially misleading posts. The platform had been flooded with people, including European officials and journalists, defending Ukraine and Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy, for his part, said his meeting with Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine, restores hope. Afterward he said he was ready to work quickly toward a strong agreement with the US on investments and security. The meeting followed an exchange of insults with Trump. Zelenskyy had said Trump was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble and echoing Kremlin talking points; Trump called him a dictator.

Pressure from Washington has been concrete. White House officials told Ukraine to stop badmouthing Trump and to sign a deal handing the US $500bn worth of natural resources, half the country's mineral wealth, as repayment for wartime aid. National security adviser Mike Waltz told reporters Trump was obviously very frustrated with Zelenskyy for not accepting it. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg that the administration could adjust its sanctions on Russia in response to potential peace talks, and said Zelenskyy unfortunately escalated and put some daylight between Ukraine and the US.

The shift in Washington's Ukraine policy has set off a burst of diplomacy. French president Emmanuel Macron is due at the White House on Monday, and UK prime minister Keir Starmer on Thursday. In Johannesburg, UK foreign secretary David Lammy warned the west not to be fooled by Vladimir Putin dressing up imperialism as pragmatism. A lasting peace, he said, must respect Ukraine's sovereignty and the UN charter, provide credible security guarantees and reject tsarist imperialism, adding that Britain is ready to listen but expects more than the Russian gentleman's tired fabrications.

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau told Zelenskyy in a call that any talks must include Kyiv, and that there can be no sustainable peace in Europe without security for Ukraine, according to his office. Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a long-time advocate of higher European defence spending, told Bloomberg TV it was time to move from words to actions. The coming White House visits by Macron and Starmer will show how far Europe can shape a process that Washington and Moscow have so far conducted without Ukraine.