Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping can’t protect the Russian economy from the “consequences” of intensified Western sanctions in response to a prospective major Russian offensive against Ukraine, according to U.S. officials.

“If Russia thinks that it will be in a position to make up some of those consequences to mitigate some of those consequences by a closer relationship with the PRC, that is not the case,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said, using the acronym for the official name of the Chinese state. “It will actually make the Russian economy, in many ways, more brittle.”