Kyiv, Ukraine/Beijing,China
Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fulfilling a longstanding goal of Kyiv which had publicly sought such talks for months.
Zelenskiy, describing the hour-long phone call as “long and meaningful”, signalled the importance of the chance to open closer relations with Russia’s most powerful friend, naming a former cabinet minister as Ukraine’s new ambassador to Beijing.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping via phone line, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 26th April, 2023. PICTURE: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters
Xi told Zelenskiy that China would send special representatives to Ukraine and hold talks with all parties seeking peace, Chinese state media reported.
Zelenskiy said in an evening video address that there was “an opportunity to use China’s political power to reinforce the principles and rules that peace should be built upon.”
UKRAINE CONDEMNS RUSSIAN NUCLEAR “BLACKMAIL” ON CHORNOBYL ANNIVERSARY
Ukraine marked the 37th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster on Wednesday by urging the world not to bow to Russian “blackmail” over nuclear facilities it has seized during its invasion.
Former workers at what was then known as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant began commemorative events, holding an overnight vigil in the northern town of Slavuytch to remember victims of the world’s worst nuclear accident on 26th April, 1986.
Staff of the Chornobyl nuclear plant hold candles at a memorial dedicated to firefighters and workers who died after the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, during a night commemorative service, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Slavutych, Ukraine, on 26th April, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko
An explosion at the plant in what was then Soviet Ukraine sent radioactive material across Europe. About 30 plant workers and firemen died in the immediate aftermath and many more people died later from radiation-related illnesses.
“Thirty-seven years ago, the Chornobyl NPP accident left a huge scar on the whole world,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of exploiting safety concerns raised by its occupation of Ukrainian nuclear plants to try to blackmail Kyiv and its allies into meeting Russian demands over its invasion. Russia denies the accusations.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine and the world had paid a high price over the 1986 accident, and added: “We must do everything to give the terrorist state no chance to use nuclear power facilities to blackmail Ukraine and the entire world.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry condemned Russia’s occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in south-eastern Ukraine, Europe’s largest, and demanded it leave the plant.
Russian forces also seized the now defunct Chornobyl plant in late February last year but withdrew weeks later.
In Slavutych, built for people evacuated from near the stricken plant, residents and former nuclear workers holding candles filed past photographs of victims as sombre music played.
“I know everyone here. It was my shift at the power plant,” said Serhii Akulin, a former worker at the plant. “I am here to commemorate my colleagues. They are all alive, as long as I remember them.”
– IVAN LYUBYSH-KIRDEY and PAUL VLEIRA in Slavutych; additional reporting by PAVEL POLITYUK in Kyiv, Ukraine/Reuters
“Ukraine and China, like the absolute majority of the world, are equally interested in the strength of the sovereignty of nations and territorial integrity,” he said.
Zelenskiy also said Xi had expressed “words of support” for the extension of a deal to export Ukrainian grain from its Black Sea ports. Moscow has said the pact will not be renewed beyond 18th May unless the West removes obstacles to Russian grain and fertiliser exports.
Xi, the most powerful leader to have refrained from denouncing Russia’s invasion, visited Moscow last month. Since February, he has promoted a 12-point peace plan, greeted sceptically by the West but cautiously welcomed by Kyiv as a sign of Chinese interest in ending the war.
China will focus on promoting peace talks, and make efforts for a ceasefire as soon as possible, Xi told Zelenskiy, according to the Chinese state media reports.
“As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a responsible major country, we will neither sit idly by, nor pour oil on fire, still less seek to profit from it,” Xi said.
The White House welcomed the call but said it was too soon to tell whether it would lead to a peace deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he had pushed Xi to hold the call with Zelenskiy during a visit to Beijing this month.
No peace talks in sight
The 14-month war is at a juncture, with Ukraine preparing to launch a counter-offensive following a Russian winter offensive that made only incremental advances despite bloody fighting.
There are no peace talks in sight, with Kyiv demanding Russia withdraw its troops and Moscow insisting Ukraine must recognise its claims to have annexed seized territory.
“There can be no peace at the expense of territorial compromises,” Zelenskiy said in a Twitter post on Wednesday.
“The territorial integrity of Ukraine must be restored within the 1991 borders.”
Ukrainian officials have long urged Beijing to use its influence in Russia to help end the war.
Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a “no limits” partnership agreement weeks before Putin ordered the invasion.
Since then, China has denounced sanctions against Moscow but has held back from openly supporting the invasion. China has also become Russia’s biggest economic partner, buying up oil that can no longer be sold in Europe.
Following Wednesday’s call, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “We note the readiness of the Chinese side to make efforts to establish a negotiation process.”
Washington has said in recent months it was worried about China providing weapons or ammunition to Russia, although Beijing denies any such plans.
China says it is positioned to help mediate because it has not taken sides.
“What China has done to help resolve the Ukraine crisis has been above board,” said Yu Jun, deputy head of the foreign ministry’s Eurasian department.
Western countries say China’s peace proposal is too vague, offers no concrete path out of the war, and could be used by Putin to promote a truce that would leave his forces in control of occupied territory while they regroup.
– Additional reporting by STEVE HOLLAND, SUSAN HEAVEY and DAVID BRUNNSTROM in Washington DC, US; MICHEL ROSE in Paris, France; DAVUD LJUNGGREN in Ottawa, Canada; and RON POPESKI in Winnipeg, Canada
