Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he had not seen a peace plan promised by China but wanted to meet with Beijing over their proposal before assessing it.
Beijing has promised to publish its “political solution” to the Ukraine conflict this week, in time for the first anniversary of Russia’s February 24 invasion of its neighbour.
“China have told us they have such an initiative. But I have not seen the document yet,” Zelensky said during a news conference with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Kyiv.
Beijing has sought to position itself as a neutral party in the conflict, while maintaining close ties with strategic ally Russia.
“I think it is a very good fact in general that China started talking about Ukraine and sent some signals,” Zelensky said.
“We’ll draw some conclusions after we see the specifics of what they offer… We would like to have a meeting with China.”
On Wednesday top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi met with Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin.
Following Wang Yi’s visit, Moscow said Beijing had presented its views on approaches to a “political settlement” of the conflict.
“The Chinese partners briefed us on their views on the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis as well as approaches to its political settlement,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
“There was no talk of any separate (peace) ‘plan’.”
Ukraine has published a 10-point peace plan of its own, demanding the total withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory and an international tribunal to prosecute Moscow for its aggression.
