Fluent Russian speaker Li Hui is essentially the most senior Chinese language official to go to Ukraine since Russia started its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
A high Chinese language envoy is starting a tour of Europe that may take him first to Ukraine and lastly to Russia, in a visit Beijing says is geared toward discussing a “political settlement” to the Ukraine disaster.
Li Hui, China’s particular consultant for Eurasian affairs since 2019 and a former ambassador to Russia, will even go to Poland, France and Germany on the multiday journey, the overseas ministry introduced final week, “for in-depth communications with totally different events for a political settlement of the Ukraine disaster”.
Li, a fluent Russian speaker, is essentially the most senior Chinese language official to go to Ukraine since Russia started its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and his journey may coincide with the beginnings of a long-anticipated counteroffensive by Ukraine to recapture territory seized and occupied by Russia.
The go to comes after Chinese language President Xi Jinping held a cellphone name late final month together with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the primary recognized wartime name between the 2 leaders.
Zelenskyy described the hour-long name as “lengthy and significant”, whereas Xi mentioned China’s “core place is to advertise peace by way of talks”.
On the primary anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, China launched a 12-point proposal for peace — China’s Place on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Disaster — that was met with some scepticism in Western capitals given Beijing’s ties with Russia. It urged “each side” to comply with a gradual de-escalation and abandon the “Chilly Conflict mentality”.
Beijing has not explicitly condemned Moscow over the invasion, which got here lower than three weeks after the 2 international locations dedicated to a “no limits” partnership. In March, Xi travelled to Moscow to fulfill Russian President Vladimir Putin when the 2 males signed an settlement to deliver the connection between their two international locations right into a “new period“.
Li has spent his complete diplomatic profession coping with the Soviet Union, Russia and the states that emerged following its fall since becoming a member of the overseas ministry’s Division of Soviet and East European Affairs in 1975.
Because the Xi-Zelenskyy name, a number of European leaders, together with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen, have travelled to Beijing and urged China to play a extra energetic position in restraining Moscow’s actions.
Kyiv has dominated out the concept of any territorial concessions to Russia and has mentioned it needs each inch of its land again. Russia invaded after which annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 — a transfer broadly condemned on the time — and in September final yr, introduced it had annexed 4 different japanese Ukrainian areas.