While the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, visits Xi Jinping and asks him to help end the conflict in Ukraine, in Russia they exclude that the Chinese plan can be applied. Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov praised Beijing’s great potential to mediate negotiations on Thursday, but said there is currently no alternative for Moscow but to continue the fighting.
According to the press secretary of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, there are still no possibilities to reach a peaceful solution to a war situation that has lasted for more than thirteen months, since Putin ordered to send his troops against the neighboring country on February 24. of 2022.
Peskov was asked about the words of Macron, who during his visit to China said that he is counting on Xi Jinping’s help to bring Russia and Ukraine back to the negotiating table.
“Of course, China has a very effective and impressive ability to provide mediation services. And recent diplomatic successes have eloquently demonstrated this,” the Russian spokesman said.
Recently, the mediation of Beijing has managed to get Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume their diplomatic relations.
“In the case of Ukraine,” Peskov continued, “the situation is still difficult, while no prospects for a peaceful settlement are shown. Based on the position, both official and unofficial, that they declare from Kyiv, at the moment for us we do not there is no other way than to continue the special military operation,” he explained, using the euphemistic name with which Moscow refers to the war.
The French president and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, began this Wednesday, April 5, a three-day visit to China, one of the objectives of which is to make China reconsider its cooperation with Russia and to mediate in the Ukrainian conflict.
Beijing presented a draft peace plan in February with 12 very general points. Among them was respect for the sovereignty of all countries, which could please Ukraine, but also that the security of one country should not be guaranteed at the expense of others, which is to Russia’s liking.
China also declared that it was willing to play “a constructive role” and that the resumption of talks is “the only viable solution” to the conflict.
In the same vein that Peskov spoke on Thursday, Vladimir Putin did so last March, during Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow. According to him, many of the provisions of the plan presented by Beijing “are in line with Russian approaches.” But he noted that “it will serve as the basis for a solution when the West and Kyiv are ready for this, although at the moment we do not see such willingness on their part.”
Moscow and Kyiv also hold diametrically opposed positions on the territory that belongs to each other. Ukraine maintains that peace requires the withdrawal of Russian forces from all of its territory. Russia has indicated that its adversary must recognize the “new realities”, which means it must give up the four regions it said it annexed in September last year: Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south, Luhansk and Donetsk in the east. And, of course, also the Ukrainian peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014 in an operation that Kyiv considers illegal and that most of the international community does not recognize.
China tries to stay neutral in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. However, her position raises questions among Western countries.
Last month at the Moscow summit, Xi and Putin showed their rapprochement and willing allies to challenge US hegemony in the world. In addition, shortly before that meeting, various media had published that, after seeing Putin, the Chinese leader would speak personally by videoconference with the President of Ukraine, VolodÃmir Zelenski. That virtual meeting has not yet occurred.
