China demands peace in Ukraine after US warns against helping Russia

China’s foreign ministry said it was in contact with all sides of the crisis, including Kiev, and its position was clear.

“The core is to call for peace, promote dialogue and facilitate a political solution to the crisis,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a press conference in Beijing.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that China’s plans need to be analyzed in detail and account for the interests of all sides, but for now, Moscow has reached a peaceful resolution. I haven’t seen any indication that it is possible.

“We are paying close attention to our Chinese friends’ plans. This is a very long and intense process,” Peskov told reporters.

China’s proposal has seen little ice among Ukrainian NATO military alliance supporters, who have been dissuaded from providing deadly aid to Russia’s blunt aggression, possibly including “kamikaze” drones. I am trying to do.

Russian forces have suffered heavy losses in trench warfare and struggle to gain more in eastern Ukraine, while Kiev has promised a counterattack with advanced Western weapons, including tanks, over the coming months. there is

CIA Director William Burns said over the weekend that he believed the Chinese government was considering providing military aid to Russia, although no final decision had been made.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN, “Going down that path will pay a real price to China.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week hailed Russia’s “new ground”, describing the Ukraine war as Russia’s fight for survival against the greedy West. Relations with Beijing Chinese President Xi Jinping hinted at a visit to Moscow soon.

“They have one goal: to dismantle the former Soviet Union and its fundamental part, the Russian Federation,” Putin told state television Russia 1.

“Do not run away”

NATO and the West scoff at this narrative, saying that the purpose of supporting Kiev is to repel imperial-style land grabbing by Russia.

Perceiving war as an existential threat to Russia, Putin has given great latitude in the types of weapons he can use in the future, including nuclear firepower.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and close ally of President Putin, said in a public statement that the continued Western arms supply to Kiev is at risk of a global nuclear disaster. said there is. .

Zelensky’s political advisers blamed the Russian version of the conflict.

“Two questions arise when the Russian Federation talks about nuclear war,” Mikaylo Podoljak tweeted. “Why did you attack other countries? Ask the world for the right to kill the citizens of other countries with impunity, and then shout ‘Don’t touch us’ when you get hit?”

Ukrainian forces were outnumbered but more organized and agile, repelling Russian attempts to capture Kiev early in the war and subsequently recapturing occupied territories to the east and south.

But after a year of war that killed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides and devastated Ukrainian cities, Moscow still controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine, which it annexed. claims.

Russian forces are focused on taking full control of the East Donbass industrial area, but have made only minor advances despite being replenished by hundreds of thousands of conscripts and reservists.

The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region said on Monday that Moscow had escalated artillery and infantry attacks in the Bilokholivka, Svatve Kupiansk and Kreminna regions in Luhansk, the northern half of Donbass, which was largely occupied by Russia.

“We will not run away. Our troops will not leave our territory… Of course, everything can change at any moment,” Serhiy Hayday told state television.

“On the one hand, with the heavy offensive equipment of the West underway, the military command can at any moment carry out operations according to the same plan as it did in the Kharkov area,” he said. He mentioned that he had recaptured the northeast.