As US President Donald Trump holds talks with Ukraine’s President, China’s leaders see something very different: Opportunity. CNN’s Will Ripley reports.

Ukraine does not consider China a possible security guarantor after the war, since such guarantees can only be given by countries that are actually helping, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters on August 20.

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.”

The Alaska summit between President Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was more than a high-stakes encounter over the Ukraine war. It signaled America’s recognition that its own missteps have helped drive Russia closer to China,

Trump is due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders at the White House on Monday, August 18, to press Kyiv to make a deal with Russia, which is demanding that land be ceded to Moscow.

The China-Russia alliance has grown since 2019 with joint military exercises, weapons technology sharing and coordinated strategy that could potentially create a two-front crisis risk for America.

For Europe, China’s close ties with Russia and perceived support for its war effort have overshadowed ties between China and Europe for more than three years. In Beijing, European Council President António Costa told his counterparts that China should “use its influence on Russia to respect the United Nations Charter and to bring an end of its war of aggression against Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s high-stakes diplomacy to resolve the war in Ukraine is unlikely to jolt oil and gas markets, no matter the outcome.

China's regime, which has a top-down concept of the world, likes the idea of big countries, by themselves, settling the world's problems. "Now, there is a crucial precedent for a future summit between Trump and the Chinese leadership, where China would press for major concessions in East Asia," Burton said.

Russia has yet again ignored Donald Trump’s bid to hold a summit between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky and said attempts to resolve security issues for Kyiv without Moscow’s participation was a “road to nowhere”.