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
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.
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.
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.
He also met the intelligence chief at Ukraine’s ministry of defence, Kyrylo Budanov, and was briefed on the situation at the front lines by the deputy head of the presidential office, Roman Mashovets, the Ukrainian statement said.
They also agreed to “work together to continue the tradition of mutual respect and sincere treatment between the two sides, and move their mutually beneficial cooperation forward continuously”, it said.
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Li’s Kyiv visit came as Ukraine stepped up counter attacks against Russia. On Tuesday, Ukraine had shot down all six Kinzhal missiles – Russia’s most potent hypersonic weapon – launched at the capital during an “exceptionally intense” nighttime attack, according to Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s civil and military administration.
On Thursday, Ukraine claimed another series of “unprecedented” air strikes had hit its capital and other regions early that day, after an agreement with Russia to extend a deal allowing grain exports across the Black Sea on Wednesday.
In response, Ukraine said its air defence forces had shot down 29 out of 30 Russian cruise missiles fired overnight.
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“A series of air attacks on Kyiv, unprecedented in their power, intensity and variety, continues,” Popko said, adding that no casualties had been reported in the capital.
In a separate statement released on Wednesday, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said Kuleba had told Li that Kyiv would not accept any proposals to end the war that involved it losing territory or freezing the conflict.
“Kuleba briefed the special envoy of the Chinese government in detail on the principles of restoring a sustainable and just peace based on respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Ukrainian ministry said.
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It was not clear from the Chinese statement if freezing the conflict was part of Li’s proposals during his meetings with the Ukrainian officials. Instead, it said Ukraine “welcomed the active role played by China in ending the war and restoring peace”.
Sources told the Post that Li will also meet European Union officials in Brussels next week.
Brussels was not on Li’s itinerary when Beijing announced his peacemaking tour to Europe, which also includes stops in France, Germany and Russia.
Earlier, the Polish foreign ministry’s spokesman Lukasz Jasina told Agence France-Presse that Li would meet with Poland’s deputy foreign minister in Warsaw during his stay in Poland.
