Key Points and Summary – The upcoming Trump-Putin summit is unlikely to produce a lasting peace in Ukraine because the key to ending the war lies in Beijing, not Moscow. -China is the primary strategic beneficiary of the protracted conflict,

Most significantly, China’s influence has recently shifted from passive supply to active manipulation of the technological balance on the battlefield—the hallmark of a state engaged in proxy warfare. In May 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated bluntly, “Chinese Mavic [drones] are open for Russians but are closed for Ukrainians.”

Under the proposed Russian deal, Kyiv would fully withdraw from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in return for a Russian pledge to freeze the front lines in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the sources said.

DA WEI is Director of the Center for International Security and Strategy and a Professor in the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University.

Trump has threatened sanctions on Moscow and secondary sanctions on countries that buy its oil if no moves are made to end the war in Ukraine. China and India are the top two buyers of Russian oil. The president last week imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, citing its continued imports of Russian oil.

From the dawn of Ukraine's first-person-view drone industry up to a year ago, producers purchased almost all of the parts they used in assembly from Chinese firms. Today, Ukrainian companies have started mass-producing the various electronics,

Speaking after Friday’s summit, President Putin again implied that the war is all about Russia’s diminished status since the fall of the Soviet Union.

US President Donald Trump said he will hold off on raising tariffs on Chinese goods over the country’s purchases of Russian oil, citing progress he said was made with Vladimir Putin toward ending the war in Ukraine.

For a few years now, Western observers have breathlessly praised Ukraine’s successes in defense innovation, from AI to drones to decentralization and an

Ukraine has exported about 140,000 metric tons of barley to China so far in July and is likely to ship 350,000 to 400,000 tons in August, farming union UAC said on Wednesday.

China has imposed sanctions on two Lithuanian banks, in retaliation for recent EU curbs on two Chinese lenders as relations sour over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.