Tag: Russian Invasion of Ukraine (2022)

China Repeats Call for Cease-Fire in Ukraine and Peace Talks

Chin@Strategy

After a drum roll of diplomatic activity suggesting that China was poised to play a more energetic role in seeking peace in Ukraine, Beijing has issued a position paper that reprises its established views on the war, calling for an end to fighting while avoiding demands — or words like “invasion” — that could hurt its ties with Russia. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released the paper on Friday, the anniversary of Russia’s invasion, and after China’s most senior diplomat, Wang Yi, had visited Europe, telling a security forum…

The U.S. Intelligence Playbook to Expose Russia’s Ukraine War Plans

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — A year ago, the United States did something extraordinary — it released previously classified intelligence that exposed Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine. Last week, Antony J. Blinken, the secretary of state, made a similar move when he warned China’s top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, against providing weapons to Russia. In a previous era, the warning might have remained private, at least for some time. But a new intelligence playbook honed just before and during the war in Ukraine has redefined how the United States uses its classified…

What the War in Ukraine Has Truly Cost Us

Chin@Strategy

I’ll never forget the stories I heard on the Ukrainian-Polish border one year ago: Newlyweds who separated hours after saying their vows so the groom could return to the front. A tax preparer in Boston who quit her job to return to Ukraine with suitcases full of medical supplies. The wife of a border guard who made the three-hour round trip from Lviv to the Polish border almost daily to drop off fleeing women and children and pick up weapons and supplies. The one-year mark of this terrible war brings…

Putin and Biden Shore Up Alliances in Dueling Appearances

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WARSAW — In a day of dueling efforts to shore up allegiances, President Biden wrapped up a three-day trip to Europe Wednesday with a promise of America’s commitment to its allies as President Vladimir V. Putin warmly welcomed China’s top diplomat to Moscow and rallied pro-war Russians. With the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine approaching, Mr. Biden met in Warsaw with leaders from NATO’s eastern flank, acknowledging that “you know better than anyone what’s at stake in this conflict, not just for Ukraine, but for the freedom of democracies…

China’s Economic Support for Russia Could Elicit More Sanctions

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WASHINGTON — President Biden and his top officials vowed this week to introduce additional sanctions aimed at impeding Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine. But the administration’s focus is increasingly shifting to the role that China has played in supplying Russia with goods that have both civilian and military uses. As one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of products like electronics, drones and vehicle parts, China has proved to be a particularly crucial economic partner for Russia. Beijing has remained officially unaligned in the war. Yet China, along with countries like…

China’s Courtship of European Powers Hits a Russian Wall

Chin@Strategy

China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, has been on a high-stakes tour of Europe, defending his country’s interests in a clash with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and reaffirming Beijing’s friendship with Russia with a visit to Moscow. But China is also trying to woo European nations in an urgent bid to revive its economy and to find common ground with some of Washington’s staunchest allies in the region. Mr. Wang promised the leaders of France and Germany that Beijing wanted to “fully restart exchanges” and increase cooperation on issues…

In Biden’s Unannounced Visit to Kyiv, a Preview of an Increasingly Direct Contest With Putin

Chin@Strategy

WARSAW — President Biden’s sudden appearance in Kyiv’s presidential palace on Monday morning was intended first as a morale booster for shellshocked Ukrainians in the midst of a bleak winter of power outages and a bitter war of attrition. But it was also the first of several direct challenges on this trip to President Vladimir V. Putin, who a year ago this week believed the Ukrainian capital would become Russian-controlled territory again in a matter of days, moving Mr. Putin closer to his ambition of restoring the empire of Peter…

China Says U.S. Is ‘Not Qualified’ to Issue Orders on Arms

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Bristling against U.S. claims that Beijing may be poised to send “lethal support” to help Russia’s war in Ukraine, China accused the Biden administration on Monday of spreading lies and defended China’s close partnership with Russia. The remarks, by a spokesman from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were part of a series of diplomatic moves as China’s leader, Xi Jinping, tries to preserve ties with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia while casting Beijing as a blameless onlooker in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, trying only to coax Moscow and…

U.S. Warnings to China on Arms Aid for Russia’s War Portend Global Rift

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MADRID — When the top foreign policy officials from the United States and China appeared this weekend at Europe’s premiere global security conference, both stressed that their governments were not seeking a new Cold War. Yet, new warnings by U.S. officials that China may be preparing to give weapons and ammunition to Russia ‌for its war on Ukraine portend the worst of the old Cold War. In that decades-long shadow struggle, the United States, the Soviet Union and occasionally China poured military resources into protracted wars around the globe, engaging…

Kamala Harris Says Russia Committed ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ in Ukraine

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MUNICH — Vice President Kamala Harris declared on Saturday that the United States had formally concluded that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity” in its invasion of Ukraine, and warned China against providing any kind of support to Moscow’s war effort. Her comments at the Munich Security Conference came just three days before President Biden was scheduled to commemorate the anniversary of the war with a speech in Warsaw, and just as Russia is stepping up a new offensive to break through what has devolved into a war of attrition,…