China urges Russia, Ukraine to resume talks, warns against using nuclear weapons

China urges Russia, Ukraine to resume talks, warns against using nuclear weapons

Following Wang’s visit, Moscow said Beijing had presented its views on approaches to a “political settlement” of the conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday he had not seen any Chinese peace plan and wanted to meet with Beijing over their proposal before assessing it.

“I think it is a very good fact in general that China started talking about Ukraine and sent some signals,” Zelenskyy said.

“We’ll draw some conclusions after we see the specifics of what they offer … We would like to have a meeting with China.”

Since Russian tanks rolled over the border into Ukraine, China has offered Putin diplomatic and financial support, but refrained from overt military involvement or sending caches of lethal arms.

Chinese state-controlled firms have sold non-lethal drones and other equipment to both Russia and Ukraine, but Moscow has been forced to turn to Iran for much-needed supplies such as unmanned aerial vehicles.

The United States has said North Korea has also provided rockets and artillery shells.

Washington believes that might be about to change, with both the United States and NATO voicing concerns that China could be planning to supply Russia with weapons to prop up its war effort. Beijing has denied the claims.