“The deadline for me is when it’s over,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “And I think everybody’s tired of fighting.”

Sergey Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said on Wednesday that Moscow was in close contact with China about diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, but Beijing had not taken part in the ongoing negotiations. In a phone call with Trump on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated support for “all efforts conducive to peace” and called for “a fair, lasting and binding peace agreement soon” that would resolve the crisis “at its root”.

China’s leverage lies less in the White House-led peace talks than in long-term reconstruction, the evolving US-China-Russia triangle and the military lessons it draws from the war, according to Li Lifan, an expert on Russia and Central Asia at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

“China remains relatively calm on this issue, and I am confident Beijing can accept whatever arrangements are ultimately made,” he said. “The real question is whether the parties will take China’s interests into account, particularly in post-war reconstruction. That possibility remains.”