(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that kyiv did not want China to act as a mediator in its 29-month conflict with Russia, but hoped Beijing would put more pressure on Moscow to end the war.
Zelenskiy, speaking to French media, also said that even if Ukraine insisted on restoring its 1991 post-Soviet borders, it would consider opening talks with Russia before Moscow withdraws all of its troops if the conditions were right.
“If China wants, it can force Russia to stop this war. I don’t want it to act as a mediator. I would like it to put pressure on Russia to end this war,” Zelenskiy told reporters.
“Just as the United States exerts pressure, just as the European Union exerts pressure. The more influence a country has, the greater its pressure should be on Russia.”
China, which has a “limitless” partnership with Russia, has put forward its own peace plan to end the war, based on non-escalation, direct negotiations and humanitarian aid.
She stayed away from the first peace summit on Ukraine, held last month in Switzerland, but has stepped up diplomatic efforts and hosted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba last week.
Zelenskiy reiterated his earlier assertion that Russia, which was excluded from the peace summit, should attend a subsequent meeting he hopes to hold later this year.
“Otherwise we will not get viable results,” he said.
“All our conditions will be met. This does not mean that at that precise moment we will find our 1991 borders again.”
A just peace for Ukraine, he said, “implies the restoration of our territorial integrity, but this does not mean that this must be done only by arms.”
Russian forces currently occupy just under 20 percent of Ukrainian territory and have made gradual gains in the eastern part of the 1,000 km (600 mile) front since capturing the town of Avdiivka in February.
In his comments, Zelenskiy acknowledged the advances and said they were caused by delays in equipping the brigades, Russia’s refusal to take account of its own losses and restrictions imposed by Kiev’s Western partners on how their weapons could be deployed.
“It’s difficult on the entire Eastern Front. They’re concentrating all their efforts in the East,” he said, referring to their advance westward to the Ukrainian-controlled town of Sloviansk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that Moscow was ready to negotiate an end to the war, but that talks were conditional on Ukraine giving up the four regions annexed by Russia in 2022.
Zelenskiy said ceding territory was not an option.
“It is impossible. It goes against our constitution. And it is a matter that concerns only us,” he said.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski, editing by Stephen Coates)
