President Donald Trump sat down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday. They talked about different world problems, and one big topic was the war happening in Ukraine. Ukraine was really counting on this meeting to help them out.
According to Politico, Ukrainian leaders were hoping Trump would push Xi to stop buying so much oil from Russia. If China bought less oil, Russia would have less money to keep fighting the war. This was especially important because the U.S. just hit Russia’s biggest oil companies with sanctions. But things didn’t work out the way Ukraine wanted.
Trump spoke to reporters while flying on Air Force One after the meeting. He said they spent a lot of time talking about Ukraine, but they didn’t bring up the oil issue at all. “We talked about it for a long time. And we’re both going to work together to see if we can get something done. We agreed the sides are locked in, and they are fighting and sometimes, you have to let them fight, I guess,” Trump told the press. He called it “crazy” but said Xi promised to help work on the Ukraine problem.
This sounds like Trump is giving up on Ukraine
Just a few days before, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was feeling hopeful about this meeting. He thought it might be a big step toward stopping the war. When Zelenskyy talked to reporters in Kyiv on Monday, he said China cutting back on Russian oil would really matter. He also pointed out that India already said they would buy less energy from Russia.
Trump’s words painted a very different picture though. He told reporters that Xi has been getting oil from Russia for years, and China really needs it. “But with him we did not discuss the oil. We discussed working together to get this war finished. It does not affect China; it does not affect us. But I don’t like to see thousands of young men killed,” Trump said.
One expert had some thoughts about what Trump said. Hanna Shelest works as the director of Security Programmes at Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism.” She thinks Trump’s words show something interesting about how China sees Russia. She said China treats Russia like a small business partner, not like a real ally or someone they depend on for big things.
China keeps saying they aren’t making money off the war in Ukraine. But the numbers show something else. China buys more Russian coal and oil than anyone else. A group called the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air looked at the numbers from September. They found that China made up 42 percent of what Russia earned from selling to its top five buyers. That came out to about $6 billion. The president’s handling of Ukraine comes at a time when his approval rating has dropped below zero in 12 states where he won before.
This Trump-Xi meeting is pretty disappointing for Ukraine. They were trying to get countries around the world to stop doing business with Russia and pressure them to end the war. This didn’t help that plan at all. At the same time, Trump is dealing with court problems including a situation where a judge got removed from a California case.
Published: Oct 30, 2025 12:19 pm