“The Chinese, of course, are pursuing their own interests,” Melnyk said. “But I do believe that a just and peaceful solution and the end of hostilities are more in line with Beijing’s interests than the current unrelenting earthquake for the whole world order.”
This week Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had a telephone conversation, the first between the two heads of state since the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than fourteen months ago. Beijing is officially neutral, but Xi visited Moscow in March, where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has spoken several times since the start of the war.
Melnyk called the talk between Zelensky and Xi “a big step forward in strengthening our relations with China and ending Russian aggression”. He did emphasize that the withdrawal of all Russian troops from occupied territories is an absolute condition.
China came up with its own peace plan for Ukraine in February. However, that does not call for a Russian withdrawal from areas that Moscow has occupied since last, or from Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
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