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Ukraine war
ChinaDiplomacy

Chinese envoy says Ukraine, Russia must ‘start with themselves’ to create space for peace talks

  • Special envoy Li Hui leaves Kyiv with promise to cooperate, but few details on ceasefire plan during peacemaking trip
  • In a statement, Ukraine’s presidential office said it would stick to its own 10-point peace formula proposed in November

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China’s special envoy Li Hui “elaborated on China’s position on a political solution” to the war in Ukraine, according to the foreign ministry. Photo: EPA-EFE
Laura Zhou
China’s special envoy Li Hui said his country and Ukraine would continue efforts to cooperate for “mutual benefit” as he wrapped up a two-day visit to Kyiv, part of Beijing’s latest attempt to push for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.
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Li, who met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “elaborated on China’s position on a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine”, the foreign ministry said in a statement, without giving more details.

He also called for the two warring parties to “start with themselves, build up mutual trust and create conditions to stop the war and talk”, and that Beijing was willing to make its own efforts to push forward a ceasefire, the statement added.

Hours later, Zelensky’s office posted a lengthy statement suggesting that Ukraine would stick to the 10-point formula it put forward in November, which includes demands for Russia’s withdrawal and the return of all territory seized by Moscow.

According to the statement, during a briefing on the current security situation with the Chinese delegation, Andriy Yermak, the head of the presidential office, told Li that Ukraine was seeking a peace based on nothing but Zelensky’s peace formula.

“We are interested in China being involved in the implementation of the Ukrainian peace formula,” Yermak said in the statement.

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Neither Beijing nor Kyiv described the other side’s response in their own statements.

According to the two statements, Li met several senior officials, including Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and the chiefs of the departments of infrastructure and reconstruction and energy, as well as officials overseeing war prisoners and children’s rights.

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