Ukraine’s finance minister said on Friday that Kiev should use its bilateral relationship with China as leverage to put an end to a full-scale Russian invasion.
His comments got here shortly after a long-awaited phone call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The 2 leaders spoke earlier this week for the primary time for the reason that starting of Russia’s war with Ukraine last February.
“I’m not entirely convinced that we are able to highlight anything specifically after this conversation, but I can really say that it’s important to proceed the dialogue between our countries,” Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro in Stockholm, Sweden.
“We actually understand the importance of China and we actually understand how necessary it’s for us to create our own relationship with China and stop China [from fully supporting] Russia.”
When asked if China may very well be seen as Ukraine’s best friend in its quest to discover a compromise for peace, Marchenko replied “after all not” as an alternative of mentioning the US, the Group of Seven Nations and “all our partners” supporting Ukraine.
He added that Kiev “should use China as leverage to win this war,” saying the country must seize every opportunity “to persuade Russia to stop this bloody war in Ukraine.”
China said on Wednesday it will send special representatives to Ukraine and hold talks with all sides to end the conflict. The intervention got here after months of apparent reluctance to engage with Kiev on the identical level as with Moscow.
Chinese state media reported that Xi told his Ukrainian counterpart through the call that Beijing would deal with promoting peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
Meanwhile, Zelensky said on Twitter that a “long and substantive” discussion could help “give a strong impetus to the event of our bilateral relations.”
The timing of the decision – and China’s decision to send emissaries to Ukraine – has drawn surprise amongst political and defense analysts, especially since Ukraine is believed to be preparing to launch a large-scale counter-offensive against Russian forces to retake territory within the east and south.
— Holly Ellyatt of CNBC contributed to this report.