Zelenskyy plans to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to discuss peace plan

25 February 2023, 08:33

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he plans to meet with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to discuss Beijing’s calls for peace talks to end the war in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, on the first anniversary of Russia's invasion, Mr Zelenskyy said: “I am planning to meet with Xi Jinping.”

He said: “I really want to believe that China will not supply weapons to Russia. This will be important for world security.”

“China has shown its thoughts. I believe that the fact that China started talking about Ukraine is not bad,” he added.

China offered a 12-point peace proposal to halt the conflict in Ukraine warning against the use of nuclear weapons set out in a foreign ministry paper.

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Russia hailed China’s peace plan and said “we share Beijing’s views”.

China has refrained from condemning its ally Russia or referring to Russia's intervention in Ukraine as an invasion.

It has also criticised sanctions imposed by Western nations on Russia.

The paper read: "All parties must stay rational and exercise restraint, avoid fanning the flames and aggravating tensions, and prevent the crisis from deteriorating further or even spiralling out of control," the ministry said in its paper.

On Friday, US president Joe Biden dismissed China’s peace plan, adding there is “nothing in the plan that would indicate that there is something that would be beneficial to anyone other than Russia”.

Speaking to ABC News, Mr Biden said: “If Putin is applauding it, so how could it be any good? I’m not being facetious. I’m being deadly earnest.”

On Friday, Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki announced that it had delivered four Leopard tanks to Ukraine and said it was prepared to deliver more quickly.

It comes as Western nations increase their support to Kyiv a year on from the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022.