Trump Secretly Appeals to Xi Jinping for Help Regarding Ukraine War
US President Donald Trump has reportedly made a direct, ‘one-on-on’ request to Chinese President Xi Jinping during the US-China summit held last month. The aim was to seek Beijing’s assistance and intervention in ending the prolonged war between Russia and Ukraine.
According to a report from Asia Business Daily via the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Monday, sources familiar with the summit revealed that Trump made this specific request so that Xi would be willing to ‘persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to immediately return to the negotiating table’. The high-level meeting between Trump and Xi took place in Beijing, China, from 14 to 15 May.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has established the cessation of the war in Ukraine as a top priority in his foreign policy. However, the only high-level talks between the warring parties, Russia and Ukraine, occurred in Türkiye in July last year.
Furthermore, in March this year, Trump was known to have exerted significant political pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to swiftly agree to a peace deal with Russia. Despite these diplomatic efforts, military escalations on the battlefield have continued to rise sharply. This was evidenced when Russia launched a brutal strike on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, using the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile on 25 May, which was met by a Ukrainian airstrike on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant—currently under Russian military occupation—on 30 May.
To date, both Trump and the White House have remained silent and reluctant to provide official public comments regarding the details of the secret discussions concerning the Ukraine war. Trump only provided a brief statement confirming that the crucial issue was raised during the meeting, stating, ‘It is one of the things we hope can be resolved soon,’ as reported on Tuesday (2/6/2026).
On the other hand, the official fact sheet released by the White House did not include any discussion points regarding the Ukraine topic. Meanwhile, the official statement from the Chinese government only normatively mentioned that the two world leaders exchanged views on major international issues, including the crisis in Ukraine.
Only a few days after the US-China summit concluded, Xi held a follow-up summit with Putin in Beijing on 20 May. In a joint statement released after the meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed their stance, stating, ‘Both countries recognise that the root causes of the Ukraine crisis must be eliminated and a framework for common security and lasting peace must be established, fully and comprehensively based on the principles of the United Nations Charter.’
Citing the SCMP report again, although Trump pleaded with Xi to bring Putin back to the negotiating table, this request proved to be merely a secondary agenda or a side issue during the summit. The majority of the discussions between the US and China focused on trade and investment matters, while regarding geopolitical issues, the matters of Taiwan and Iran were given much higher priority than the situation in Ukraine.