Agency Report
Beijing on Monday called for de-escalation and “restraint” over the Ukraine crisis as Russia and Ukraine prepared to meet for their first talks since Moscow’s invasion of its western neighbour.
Russia invaded on Thursday and quickly announced it had neutralised key Ukrainian military facilities, with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday ordering his country’s nuclear forces onto high alert.
Representatives from Moscow and Kyiv are set to meet on the border with Belarus on Monday, after Western allies hit Russia with a slew of sanctions and pledged arms for Ukraine.
China has trod a cautious diplomatic tightrope on the crisis as it tries to balance its core foreign policy line — that a country’s sovereignty is sacrosanct and others should not interfere — with its support for close ally Moscow.
Instead it has called for Russia’s “reasonable” security demands to be heard, repeatedly refusing to condemn Putin’s actions or use the term “invasion”.
