Xi Jinping warned Putin not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine
Xi Jinping with Vladimir Putin at an official welcome ceremony at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow in MarchXi Jinping personally warned Vladimir Putin against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, it has emerged.China’s president delivered the blunt message face-to-face to the Russian president during his state visit to Moscow in March, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing multiple Western and Chinese officials.It indicates underlying Chinese misgivings about Russia’s invasion of its neighbour despite Beijing’s outward show of tacit support for Moscow on the global stageThe report comes amid warnings from Ukraine that Russia may have placed explosives on the roof of Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, in the country’s south-east.Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said Moscow may be planning to detonate them to simulate an attack on the facility which it will blame on Kyiv’s forces.A Russian serviceman guards an area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power s
Xi Jinping personally warned Vladimir Putin against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, it has emerged.
China’s president delivered the blunt message face-to-face to the Russian president during his state visit to Moscow in March, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing multiple Western and Chinese officials.
It indicates underlying Chinese misgivings about Russia’s invasion of its neighbour despite Beijing’s outward show of tacit support for Moscow on the global stage
The report comes amid warnings from Ukraine that Russia may have placed explosives on the roof of Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, in the country’s south-east.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said Moscow may be planning to detonate them to simulate an attack on the facility which it will blame on Kyiv’s forces.
China’s influence over Russia has raised hopes that Mr Xi’s warning may deter Putin from using nuclear weapons out of concern that he could jeopardise Moscow’s relationship with Beijing.
Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said that China’s position was “important”.
“[This is] an important position of [China] regarding the nuclear threat from the insane Russian terrorist,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app, posting a link to the Financial Times article.
China has been one of the few countries to fully engage with Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. Mr Xi’s declaration early last year of a “no limits” friendship with Putin and a Beijing “peace plan” that mirrors Moscow’s views have been greeted with suspicion in the US and Europe.
However, Beijing’s stance on nuclear weapons has also been welcomed.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said in March that Mr Xi’s Moscow visit “reduces the risk of nuclear war and they [the Chinese] have made it very, very clear”.
Sir Tony Blair agreed in an interview with Nikkei Asia last week that China’s intervention meant there were “reasonable grounds for hope” that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will not trigger a world war.
Although there were “many problems” with China’s support of Russia, the benefit of their close relationship was its insistence Moscow did not resort to a nuclear option, he said.
“China does not believe it is in its interest at all for this to slide towards a global conflict.”
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