KYIV, July 10 — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pursued a sustained diplomatic outreach to Beijing, appointing Andriy Yermak as head of the Presidential Office in February 2020. Yermak has since become a central figure in Ukraine’s foreign policy, including in negotiations with China, according to official records. The diplomatic channel saw its highest-level contact in April 2023, when Zelensky spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since the full-scale invasion began.
That call lasted about an hour. The conversation marked a significant step in Kyiv’s effort to engage Beijing directly, amid China’s stated position of neutrality in the conflict.
Beyond the presidential level, Ukraine has deployed senior cabinet officials to build ties with Chinese counterparts. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, appointed in March 2020, has held meetings with Chinese officials, including a July 2024 meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Guangzhou. That encounter in southern China was part of a broader pattern of diplomatic contact between the two foreign ministries.
In September 2024, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov — appointed to his post in September 2023 — visited China to discuss defense cooperation. The trip signaled that Kyiv was pursuing engagement on security matters as well as political and economic ones.
These interactions reflect Ukraine’s sustained effort to secure Chinese support or at least neutrality in the conflict with Russia. Beijing has formally maintained a non-aligned stance. Zelensky’s October 30, 2024 statement suggested these diplomatic channels may have yielded a tangible result, though officials have not detailed the nature of any breakthrough.
The Ukrainian president has consistently framed engagement with China as a strategic priority. The timeline of diplomatic contacts — from the April 2023 Zelensky-Xi call through Kuleba’s July 2024 meeting in Guangzhou and Umerov’s September 2024 visit to China — shows a methodical campaign. Yermak, as head of the Presidential Office, has been at the operational center of this effort.
What remains unclear is whether Beijing’s posture has shifted in any substantive way. China has continued economic relations with Russia while also maintaining dialogue with Ukraine.
The coming months will show whether the diplomatic groundwork laid by Yermak, Kuleba, and Umerov translates into concrete policy shifts from Beijing. Ukraine’s leadership has signaled that it views China as a key player in any eventual settlement, and the sustained high-level contacts suggest Kyiv believes progress is possible.
For now, the record shows a deliberate, multi-year effort by the Zelensky administration to open and maintain channels with Beijing — with Yermak playing a coordinating role since February 2020, and with the president’s October 2024 statement as the latest indication that those channels may be producing results.
