According to Wall Street Journal and Reuters, the Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to visit Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin as soon as next week.

According to the U.S. newspaper, Xi will also call Volodymyr Zelenskyy the leader of Ukraine, marking the first direct communication between the two men since the Russian invasion began more than a decade ago.

Last week, the Kremlin refused to comment on reports that Xi would visit Moscow on March 21.

Xi, who broke with traditions and began his third five year term as president last Wednesday, considered Putin his “old buddy” while the two governments entered into a “no limit partnership” shortly before Putin launched war against Ukraine.

Moscow and Beijing did not immediately respond.

Zelenskyy’s spokesperson Sergii Nikoforov would not confirm or deny the upcoming negotiations. He said, “I don’t have any additional information… yet.”

Over the past weeks, the U.S. has been accusing China that it is considering sending lethal weapons to Russia. Beijing has called this “slandering”.

Beijing has offered a vaguely drafted peace proposal. Zelenskyy said he was open to discussing a part of the plan with Xi even though the West criticized Beijing’s pro-Russia bias in its text.