Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has expressed his desire to meet with Beijing to discuss their promised peace plan to end the conflict in Ukraine. While China has positioned itself as a neutral party in the conflict, maintaining close ties with strategic ally Russia, it has pledged to publish a "political solution" to the conflict this week, in time for the first anniversary of Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at a news conference with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Kyiv, Zelensky on Thursday stated that he had not seen the document yet, but was keen to meet with China to discuss their proposal before assessing it. He added that it was a positive development that China had started talking about Ukraine and sent some signals.
"China have told us they have such an initiative. But I have not seen the document yet," Zelensky was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
"I think it is a very good fact in general that China started talking about Ukraine and sent some signals. We'll draw some conclusions after we see the specifics of what they offer... We would like to have a meeting with China," he added.
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Following Wang Yi's meeting with Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin, the Russian foreign ministry stated that Beijing had presented its views on approaches to a "political settlement" of the conflict, but there was no talk of any separate peace plan.
Ukraine has already published its own 10-point peace plan, which includes a demand for the total withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory and an international tribunal to prosecute Moscow for its aggression.
Zelensky's desire to meet with China is an indication of the growing interest in China's involvement in resolving the conflict, and it remains to be seen how China's proposed "political solution" will be received by the parties involved. While China has maintained a neutral stance in the conflict, its close ties with Russia may be a cause for concern for Ukraine, which has been battling Russian aggression for years.
