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

Russia’s foreign minister has cast fresh doubt on peace talks, questioning “the legitimacy” of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to sign any future agreements after targetting a US factory in a large bombardment on Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters.

Russia’s foreign minister has accused the Coalition of the Willing of “undermining” efforts to secure peace in Ukraine. Sergei Lavrov said the coalition, led by the UK and France, had tried to “shift the focus away from resolving the root causes of the conflict”, a term frequently used by Moscow to reference Ukraine’s ambition to join Nato.

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.

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 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,

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.

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.

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.

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.