Despite Xi’s trip to Russia, dialogue between China and Ukraine is still possible

Russian drones hit the town of Rzhyshchiv, in the Kyiv region on 22 March, with the deaths of seven people reported so far. Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images

Hours after Xi Jinping wrapped up a state dinner hosted in a lavish 15th-century palace, where he extolled Beijing’s “positive role” in Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Russia sent a swarm of drones to Ukraine that killed seven people in a town south of Kyiv.

Commenting on the attack, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote: “Every time someone tries to hear the word ‘peace’ in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes.”