Ukraine's Zelensky says Biden-Xi meeting 'good for us'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday voiced optimism about a recent meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, AFP reports.
"We understand that this fact is good for us -- their meeting," Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv, after the US and Chinese leaders held talks in California where they agreed to restore military communications.
China has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has deepened its economic, diplomatic and military cooperation with Moscow since the start of the war in February 2022.
The United States meanwhile has spearheaded the West's backing for Ukraine on the battlefield, providing multiple packages of financial and military support.
A close aide to Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, earlier Thursday voiced "cautious optimism" over the Xi-Biden meeting, which was clouded by the US leader's characterisation of Xi as a "dictator".
The meeting "is a great signal to the world -- dialogue instead of confrontation, a new global order, rules are needed necessarily, stability and predictability," Podolyak said on social media.
Zelensky said he was unable to confirm that Biden and Xi had discussed the conflict in Ukraine but told reporters that Russia's nearly two-year invasion was raised "somehow".
