The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will send a delegation to Ukraine to hold talks with all parties on resolving the conflict there, after his first phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, since Russia invaded in February 2022.
According to Chinese state media, Xi made the offer during a telephone call on Wednesday with Zelenskiy and offered to help facilitate peace talks aimed at achieving a ceasefire as soon as possible.
Xi also appeared to pledge China would remain neutral in the conflict, saying Beijing “will neither watch the fire from the other side, nor add fuel to the fire, let alone take advantage of the crisis to profit”, according to CCTV.
However, China remains Russia’s top strategic ally in the midst of the conflict. Despite scepticism in Ukraine about China’s overtures for negotiations, Kyiv has been keen to keep communications open with Beijing, not least after Xi’s recent high-profile summit in Moscow where Russia and China pledged “undying friendship”.
Zelenskiy said: “I had a long and meaningful phone call with President Xi Jinping.
“I believe that this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine’s ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations.”
Zelenskiy’s spokesperson Serhiy Nykyforov said on Facebook that the two had “an almost one-hour-long conversation”.
Commenting on the call, Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it noted China’s willingness to engage in a peace process for Ukraine.
“We note the readiness of the Chinese side to make efforts to establish a negotiation process,” the foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
On the Chinese side the call was confirmed by Hua Chunying the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, on her Twitter page.
“What China has done to help resolve the Ukraine crisis has been above board,” added Yu Jun, the deputy head of the foreign ministry’s Eurasian department.
Providing further details of the contacts, a report on Chinese state TV said Xi had told the Ukrainian leader: “Negotiation is the only viable way out,” adding: “There is no winner in a nuclear war.”
Xi added: “When dealing with the nuclear issue, all parties concerned should remain calm and restrained, truly focus on the future and destiny of themselves and all mankind, and jointly manage and control the crisis.”
There have been signs that China is unhappy about how Russia’s invasion has played out, with Vladimir Putin himself saying last September that Xi had “questions and concerns” about the war.
But China is under increasing pressure from western governments, which have called it a “systemic rival”. And no other allies have the geopolitical and military clout of Russia, even now it stands diminished by military failures in Ukraine and the financial sanctions prompted by the invasion.
Just before Putin ordered troops across the border, China described their partnership as a “no limits” alliance. Repeated meetings between Xi and Putin since then, including Xi’s state visit to Moscow, have left no doubt about where Beijing believes its main interests lie.
According to a Chinese official, Beijing plans to send a delegation to Ukraine and other countries with the aim of starting peace negotiations.
The phone call followed the release of a Chinese-proposed 12-point peace plan and repeated requests from Zelenskiy for a meeting with Xi both before and after the Chinese leader visited Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month.
The peace plan document portrayed China as a neutral party and urged the two sides to enter into peace negotiations.
The paper’s first point was that “the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries must be effectively upheld”.
But China has consistently refused to expand upon how that relates to the specifics of the Ukraine war, which was triggered when Russia’s forces invaded its neighbour.
In the paper, Beijing called on Russia and Ukraine to resume peace talks, stating that “dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution”.
The document was met with scepticism from Ukraine’s allies. The Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, said Beijing: “Doesn’t have much credibility because they have not been able to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
Many at the time pointed to the fact Xi had met Putin but not even called Zelenskiy as evidence that China was not the impartial observer it claimed to be.
