Ukraine live briefing: Zelensky speaks by phone to China’s Xi, in their first call since war began

Xi said China would send a special representative to Ukraine for talks on resolving the crisis, state media reported. “Amid the current rise of reasonable thinking and voices from all sides, we should seize the opportunity to build up favorable conditions for a political settlement of the crisis,” Xi told Zelensky.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners Wednesday: 44 Ukrainians and 40 Russian were swapped, according to statements from Russia’s Defense Ministry and Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak. “I am grateful to all our warriors on the frontline who are replenishing the exchange fund,” Zelesnky said in his nightly address. “Every Russian prisoner of war is an opportunity to exchange our people.”

Here’s the latest on the war and its impact around the globe.

Ukrainian President Zelensky held ‘meaningful’ call with China’s Xi Jinping

Zelesnky and Xi speak by phone

• A Biden administration spokesman said Wednesday that the United States is glad to see that Xi and Zelensky connected in a phone call. John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, asked about the possibility of China brokering a negotiated settlement between Kyiv and Moscow, said that any deal needs to be one that Zelensky accepts. ““The only settlement that we think is worth pursuing is one that President Zelensky thinks is worth pursuing,” Kirby said.
• Last month, Xi made a grand state visit to Russia in a show of strength, highlighting Beijing’s bid for global leadership. It came shortly after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky, who has been visited by numerous world leaders in Kyiv, said previously that he has invited Xi to visit Ukraine. Beijing has positioned itself as neutral in the conflict and recently released a 12-point proposal for ending the war.
• “It was a long and quite rational conversation,” Zelesnky said in his nightly address. The two leaders focused on areas of concurrence such as “threats with nuclear weapons,” “the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” and the Balck sea grain deal, he said.

Other key developments

• Journalists reporting for La Republica, an Italian newspaper, came under fire in Ukraine Wednesday, and Ukrainian fixer Bogdan Bitik was killed, Italian media outlets reported. Italian reporter Corrado Zunino was injured in the attack, near Kherson.
• German and British warplanes intercepted three Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea, German air force officials wrote on Twitter Wednesday. Two Russian air force Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft flew in international airspace over the Baltic Sea without a transponder signal, Germany’s Luftwaffe said.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of causing a deadlock over the Black Sea grain deal. The negotiations, he said during a news conference at the United Nations in New York, have been “brought to a dead end by Western colleagues.” Russia has indicated that it will not agree to extend the fragile pact that allows Ukrainian grain to be exported beyond May 18 unless its demands — which include rejoining the SWIFT banking system — are met. The grain deal has helped ease a global food crisis resulting from the war.
• Lavrov also alluded to the possibility of a prisoner swap for two Americans, Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who are detained in Russia. He referred to a number of Russians detained by the United States, telling reporters that “the discussion of these matters exists” but that such work “is not public in nature.” He was speaking at a news conference in New York, where Russia’s month-long term as the rotating head of the U.N. Security Council is winding down.

Battleground updates

• “Heavy, short-range combat” continues in Bakhmut, according to a daily British intelligence update. The besieged area in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region has been the site of a deadlocked battle for months. Supply lines to Ukraine’s forces in Bakhmut are being “complicated by muddy conditions on unsurfaced tracks,” it added. Analysts at the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said in their latest assessment that Russian forces continue to mount ground attacks in and around Bakhmut, aided by fighters from the Russian mercenary Wagner Group.
• Ukraine is working with the FBI to collect evidence of war crimes, FBI special agent Alex Kobzanets told a conference. Ukrainian authorities are gathering phone data and geolocation information from battlefields, as well as forensic analyses of DNA samples to prove Russian war crimes, Kobzanets told the RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco, Reuters reported. “The next step is working with national U.S. service providers and transferring that information,” he added.

Global impact

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has moved toward entering the presidential race, said in an interview Tuesday it is “in everybody’s interest to try to get to a place where we can have a cease-fire” in Ukraine — a message out of step with the Biden administration, which has called negotiations with Russia untenable and says cease-fires would allow the country to rest and rearm, Hannah Knowles reports.
• President Biden is set to discuss the Ukraine war at a Group of Seven meeting in Japan. Biden is set to attend a summit in Hiroshima on May 19 to “discuss a range of the most pressing global issues, including the G-7’s unwavering support for Ukraine,” a White House statement said. He will also attend a meeting of the Quad alliance in Sydney, which includes Australia, India and Japan, to address Indo-Pacific matters.
• A former Wagner Group commander who is seeking asylum in Norway pleaded guilty to charges related to a fight outside a bar in the capital, Oslo. Andrey Medvedev, 26, said he was “very ashamed” of his behavior, Reuters reported. He seemingly defected from the fighting in Ukraine and crossed into Norway from Russia in January, claiming that his life is at risk if he returns.

Discord leaks

U.S. intelligence holds that Russia will be able to fund the war in Ukraine for at least another year, even under the heavy and increasing weight of unprecedented sanctions, according to leaked U.S. military documents.

The previously unreported documents provide a rare glimpse into Washington’s understanding of the effectiveness of its own economic measures, and of the tenor of the response they have met in Russia, where U.S. intelligence finds that senior officials, agencies and the staff of oligarchs are fretting over the painful disruptions — and adapting to them.

While some of Russia’s economic elites might not agree with the country’s course in Ukraine, and sanctions have hurt their businesses, they are unlikely to withdraw support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to an assessment that appears to date from early March.

Natalia Abbakumova and Adam Taylor contributed to this report.