The news came out of the blue on Wednesday evening, Beijing local time: China’s President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, as state media reported. As Zelenskiy shared on Twitter shortly after, the conversation was „long and meaningful.“ The phone call had been expected, especially by the Ukrainian side, for months. There had been radio silence between the two leaders since the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops. Instead of talking to Zelenskiy, Xi met his „good old friend“ Vladimir Putin in Moscow at the end of March. The focus was on expressions of friendship and economic cooperation with Russia. When Zelenskiy extended an invitation to Xi a few days later and told the AP news agency „we are ready to see him here,“ it was impossible not to hear the desperation between the lines.