“China is ready to do anything conducive to easing tensions and promoting negotiations,” he added.
03:03
Russia unleashes rare daytime strikes on Ukrainian capital Kyiv in new wave of attack
In May, Li met senior officials in Kyiv, Moscow, Warsaw, Paris, Berlin and Brussels, presenting China’s position and seeking to promote a political settlement to the crisis.
Li is a vice-ministerial level diplomat and the most senior Chinese official to set foot on Ukrainian soil since the conflict began.
Beijing has faced a barrage of criticism from Western countries that say it has not done enough to push Moscow towards a peaceful resolution to the war. But China – which has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – has maintained that it is making efforts to promote peace.
[embedded content]
Li said all parties had welcomed China’s efforts to resolve the conflict, and noted the “common understandings” he had discovered between Ukraine and Russia, such as the desire for a political settlement.
“My impression is that neither side has shut the door on peace,” he said.
Li also raised concerns about the risk facing nuclear facilities in the region, such as the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest.
On Tuesday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, reportedly said that neither Ukraine nor Russia had agreed to a five-point plan to protect the facility, and warned that the situation was “extremely fragile and dangerous”.
Li said if there was a nuclear disaster “no country will emerge unhurt”.
“All parties need to shoulder the responsibility for ensuring the safety of nuclear facilities, and take concrete actions to cool the situation down,” he said.
He also touched on the “inconvenient” route he had to take during his trip because of European restrictions on flights to Russia and the complications of travelling in Ukraine.
On the first leg of the trip to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Li said he had to fly from Beijing to Warsaw via Dubai. The delegation were then taken by cars to the Polish-Ukrainian border before boarding a train to Kyiv – a journey he said took 14 hours.
After talks with European Union officials in Brussels, Li travelled by plane to Istanbul where he changed to another plane to get to Moscow to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
