Ukraine tells China envoy peace plan must not lose land to Russia

Ukraine’s foreign minister told a top Chinese envoy that Kiev would not accept proposals to end the war with Russia that would see Ukraine lose territory or put the conflict on hold, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made the remarks during a meeting in Kiev with Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs and former ambassador to Russia.

Kuleba discussed with Li “ways to stop Russian aggression,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

At his meeting, Kuleba stressed “that Ukraine will not accept proposals that entail the loss of its territory or the freezing of the conflict”.

Restoring a “just peace” in Ukraine depended on “respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Kuleba said, according to the statement.

There was no word on how Li reacted to Kuleba.

Li was in Kiev on Tuesday and Wednesday to promote Beijing-led negotiations to resolve the conflict.

Li is the highest-ranking Chinese diplomat to visit Ukraine since Moscow invaded in February 2022, and his arrival in Kiev comes three weeks after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke by phone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Zelenskyy also appointed a new Ukrainian ambassador to China on the same day, the Kyiv Independent media organization reported.

Officials in Kiev had warned ahead of the Chinese visit that Ukraine did not need a “mediation for the sake of the mediation”.

“Ending the war with a compromise at the expense of Ukraine will not work,” a senior Ukrainian official told the French news agency Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity.

Beijing said the purpose of the visit was to “communicate with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis”.

Li is now expected to visit Moscow, according to the Chinese government, as well as Poland, Germany and France to discuss a possible political solution to the conflict.

Xi, who visited Moscow in March and sought to position China as a neutral mediator, was criticized for refusing to condemn the Kremlin’s attack on his neighbor and the now 15-month-long war. China has also supported Moscow politically.

Beijing officials recently ordered foreign embassies to remove so-called “propaganda” seen on diplomatic missions, in what is interpreted as a clear reference to messages of support for Ukraine.

A spokesman for the European Union said that on May 8, the Protocol Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs distributed a note to all diplomatic missions telling them to “respect Chinese laws and regulations” and “not to touch the outer walls of embassies.” be allowed to use to spread politicized propaganda to prevent disputes between countries.”

The note does not specify what “politicized propaganda” might be, nor does it communicate further on the matter, the EU spokesman said.

Ukrainian flags and signs set up by the embassies of Canada, France, Germany and other governments are the only public displays of most foreign missions, other than tourist advertisements, according to diplomats in Beijing.

Countries supporting Ukraine currently see little prospect of negotiated peace, particularly because of Russia’s insistence on achieving its war goals and the Kremlin’s demand that Kiev end Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk. , Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhia, the most nations to have labeled as illegal.

Ukraine has rejected those demands and ruled out talks with Russia until its troops withdraw from all occupied territories.

Zelensky’s own 10-point peace plan also includes an international tribunal to prosecute crimes of aggression, thus holding Russia accountable for its invasion.

Several African countries, as well as Brazil and the Vatican, have also spoken out in favor of peace talks.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tuesday that Putin and Zelenskyy had agreed to organize “a peacekeeping mission of African leaders” in Moscow and Kiev respectively.

Ramaphosa gave no timetable or parameters for the possible peace talks that would involve a delegation of leaders from six African countries to discuss a possible peace plan.