Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday revealed that he had a “long and meaningful” phone call with China’s Xi Jinping, marking their first contact since the start of Russia’s war. Zelenskyy tweeted that the call, coupled with the dispatch of an ambassador to Beijing, would “give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations”.
China confirmed the call and stated that it “always stood on the side of peace”. However, until now, Beijing has maintained a neutral stance on the Russian invasion, showing no inclination to condemn it, reported British media agency BBC.
Last month, Chinese President Xi was in Russia on a two-day state visit, during which he referred to President Vladimir Putin as his “dear friend” and put forth a 12-point peace plan. He also claimed that China stood on the right side of history but did not make any commitments to provide weapons to Russia.
Shortly after the visit, President Zelenskyy invited his Chinese counterpart to visit Kyiv for talks, indicating that they had not been in contact since the full-scale war began in February 2022. State-run China Central Television reported that President Xi stated that Beijing would “neither watch the fire from the other side, nor add fuel to it, let alone take advantage of the crisis to profit”.
China’s 12-point peace plan lists out the following objectives:
1. Respecting the sovereignty of all countries
2. Abandoning the Cold War mentality
3. Ceasing hostilities
4. Resuming peace talks
5. Resolving the humanitarian crisis
6. Protecting civilians and prisoners of war
7. Keeping nuclear power plants safe
8. Reducing strategic risks
9. Facilitating grain exports
10. Stopping unilateral sanctions
11. Keeping industrial and supply chains stable
12. Promoting post-conflict reconstruction
Speaking on China’s peace proposals, US President Joe Biden told ABC News, “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s applauding it, so how could it be any good? I’ve seen nothing in the plan that would indicate that there is something that would be beneficial to anyone other than Russia.”
Reacting to the proposals, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Beijing “doesn’t have much credibility” because it had “not been able to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine”.
Earlier this month, Ukraine compared Russia to Islamic State after a video, purportedly showing Russian soldiers filming themselves while beheading a Ukrainian captive, surfaced online. The video, whose authenticity could not be verified, shows a man in uniform beheading another person who wears the yellow arm band used by Ukrainian soldiers. Kremlin described the video as “awful” but said its authenticity needs to be checked.