Ukraine’s top diplomat has told China’s foreign minister that Kyiv was open to negotiating with Russia but only if Moscow was ready to do so in “good faith”.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is the highest-ranking Ukrainian official to travel to China since Russia’s February 2022 invasion and held talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the southern city of Guangzhou on Wednesday.
“Kuleba restated … that [Kyiv] is ready to engage the Russian side in the negotiation process at a certain stage, when Russia is ready to negotiate in good faith, but emphasised that no such readiness is currently observed on the Russian side,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
China presents itself as a neutral party in the war, insisting that the only way to end Russia’s invasion is by bringing both Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table.
It says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations, though it is a key political and economic partner of Russia, with NATO members branding Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war.
China has denied claims that it is backing Russia’s war efforts, saying last week that its position was “open and above board”.
Last year, China hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin and hailed a “no limits” partnership between the two countries.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular news conference in Beijing on Wednesday that both ministers had discussed the need to take a long-term view on building bilateral ties and that China would “continue to expand its food imports from Ukraine”.
Ning said that China was concerned by the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and that Bejing would continue to provide humanitarian assistance.
She added that the Russian and Ukrainian sides had “to varying degrees signalled their willingness to negotiate” in the war.
“Although the conditions are not yet ripe, we support all efforts conducive to peace and are willing to continue to play a constructive role in bringing about a ceasefire and the resumption of peace talks,” Ning added.
The Kremlin told reporters that Kuleba’s remark appeared to tally with Russia’s own position, but that it needed more details to assess what was being proposed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June Moscow would end the war if Kyiv retreated from and handed over the rest of four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces, and dropped its NATO ambitions, an idea shot down in Kyiv as an absurd ultimatum.
As Russian troops push forward in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv is trying to hold a second international summit later this year to advance its peace process for the end of the war.
Ukraine has previously said it would like the summit hosted by a “Global South” country and that Russia should attend.
