China says it is ready to expand military contacts with Ukraine - Bloomberg

Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu on Saturday invited his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov to use "all possible means" to try to end the Russian war and promised to expand military ties with Kyiv.

Source. Bloomberg writes about this with reference to the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Volodymyr Havrylov.

Li met with Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and his team on Saturday at a summit in Singapore, with China continuing to insist on playing a peacekeeping role in the conflict despite close political and economic ties with Moscow.

During the meeting, the Ukrainian side sought to deepen Beijing's understanding of the situation on the ground, Volodymyr Havrylov told the publication.

"They (the Chinese – ed.) are ready to communicate to expand contacts between the Ukrainian and Chinese military leadership," Gavrilov said after the talks with Chinese officials. "I hope we will see some dynamics after the meeting."

Beijing presented its peace plan, which Kyiv called a set of inconsistent principles. In particular, the document contains a clause on respect for sovereignty, but there is no requirement for the Russian side to withdraw troops from the occupied territories. Beijing is offering the parties a ceasefire, which could give Russia a break to prepare a new offensive, according to the US, EU, and Ukraine.

China has sent special representative for Eurasian affairs Li Hui to Ukraine, the EU, and Russia to propose options for resolving the conflict. However, after a diplomatic tour in which the Chinese envoy visited Warsaw, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Kyiv, and Moscow, Li stated that Beijing's peace initiative had failed.

"It is now quite difficult for all parties to bring themselves to the negotiating table," Li said. However, he added that achieving a "quick result" was not the purpose of his trips. "It is much more important to better understand the position of the different parties and convey the Chinese position on advancing the peace talks," he said.

At the same time, The Wall Street Journal wrote that at meetings with representatives of the EU, Li Hui insisted that Russia should retain the occupied territories of Ukraine.

"We explained that freezing the conflict is not in the interest of the international community unless Russian troops are withdrawn from Ukraine," said one European diplomat.

Li himself denied that he had demanded that Moscow retain the seized lands. "I know who this European official is that the Wall Street Journal wrote about, but these reports are completely untrue," the Chinese special envoy said.