Xi and Putin, regarded as allies and friends as China and Russia enlarged their strategic ties amid the strident US and EU push against them on a host of issues, held their talks on the phone around the same time as the Russian troops closed in on Kyiv, home to over three million people, with heavy bombardment raising fears of bloodshed.
The Russian side is ready to hold “high-level negotiations” with the Ukrainian side, the official Chinese media here quoted Putin as telling Xi.
Around the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday reiterated his call for Russian President Putin to hold talks and stop the conflict.
“Fighting is going on all over Ukraine. Let’s sit down at the negotiating table,” Zelensky said, the Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency reported, citing a report from Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Xi, whose government stonewalled criticism in the last few days for not condemning the Russian “invasion” of Ukraine, sought to play the role of a peacemaker by saying that China supports Russia and Ukraine to solve the issue through negotiation, the state-run CGTN reported.
Noting that the recent situation in eastern Ukraine has changed dramatically, causing great concern in the international community, Xi told Putin that China’s position on the Ukraine issue was based on the merits of the matter concerned.
In an apparent criticism directed against the United States and the European Union, Xi urged all parties to completely abandon the Cold War mindset, respect and attach importance to each other’s legitimate security concerns and strive for a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through dialogue and negotiation.
Xi reiterated that China’s position of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states and abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter has been consistent.
China is ready to work with all parties in the international community to promote common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security and firmly uphold the UN-cantered international system and the international order underpinned by international law, he said.
Putin, for his part, introduced the historical context on the Ukraine issue as well as Russia’s position on launching the special military operation in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian president stressed that the United States and NATO have long ignored Moscow’s legitimate security concerns, repeatedly reneged on their commitments and kept pushing military deployments eastward, which challenged Russia’s strategic bottom line.
He also told Xi that the Russian side was ready to conduct “high-level negotiations” with the Ukrainian side.
During their phone conversation, Xi once again expressed his gratitude to Putin for coming to China to attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which was boycotted by the leaders and diplomats of the US, the EU and their allies to highlight the allegations of human rights violations against Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang.
As Xi-Putin held talks, a Xinhua report said the Russian Defence Ministry announced that its airborne forces successfully conducted a landing operation at the Gostomel airfield outside Kiev, blocking the Ukrainian capital city from the west.
