White House comments on Xi Jinping's visit to Russia, calls on Chinese leader to talk to Zelenskyy

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said this, CNN reports. 

“If you're going to go to Moscow, and you're going to sit down for three days with President Putin, and you're going to get his perspective on a war that he started, and that he could finish today. You ought to pick up the phone at the very least, and talk to President Zelenskyy and get the Ukrainian perspective here,” he said.

He assured that the White House is very closely monitoring Xi Jinping's trip and warned against calls for a ceasefire that would only play into Russia's hands.  

“A ceasefire called right now would basically just ratify Russia's conquest and give Mr. Putin more time to really equip and retrain and restart operations at a time and a place of his choosing,” John Kirby noted. 

He also called Russian-Chinese relations a marriage of convenience, not love.

“These are two countries that don't have a heck of a whole lot of trust between one another, but they find common cause in pushing back on the West, in pushing back on American leadership,” he said. 

• Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow on March 20 to hold talks with Vladimir Putin. The Institute for the Study of War suggests that the topic of the talks between the Russian and Chinese leaders will be Xi Jinping's mediation in the war in Ukraine and ways to circumvent sanctions.

• Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said it is following Xi Jinping's visit to Russia and expects Beijing to use its influence on Russia to end the war.

• According to the Financial Times, Xi Jinping plans to have a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his meeting with Vladimir Putin.