![With Zelensky call, Xi Jinping steps up bid to broker peace -- but does he have a plan?](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/230314062728-xi-zelensky-split--super-tease.jpg)
With Zelensky call, Xi Jinping steps up bid to broker peace -- but does he have a plan?
CNN
A long-awaited phone call between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday has received a tentative welcome in Washington and parts of Europe for its potential to increase dialogue toward resolving Russia's brutal war in Ukraine.
It also marks the most concrete step made to date by China to take up the role of mediator that it has for months alluded to playing.
But the hour-long conversation, believed to be the first between the two leaders in the fourteen months since Russia invaded Ukraine, also comes with few tangible proposals for how China might help to bridge the devastating, war-torn divide between the two countries.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250211032809.jpg)
At least 1 dead and several injured after a private jet crashed into another upon arrival in Arizona
At least one person is dead and several injured after a midsized business jet crashed into another jet as it arrived at Scottsdale Municipal Airport in Arizona Monday afternoon.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250210215917.jpg)
The Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and its sweeping freeze on foreign assistance has made it more difficult to track potential misuse of US taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance, meaning it could end up unintentionally going to terrorist groups, according to a new report from the agency’s independent watchdog.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250210131538.jpg)
California man finds 525-pound animal under his home after Los Angeles fires. The bear goes by Barry
A Southern California man returned home after evacuating last month’s devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires to discover an unexpected resident lurking beneath it.