Beijing’s initiative takes into account the root causes of the conflict, the Russian foreign minister has said
China’s plan to resolve the Ukraine crisis remains one of the most viable options on the table to achieve that goal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Lavrov hailed the 12-point initiative first proposed by Beijing in February 2023 on the first anniversary of the conflict. The plan includes a call for the cessation of hostilities, the resumption of peace talks, abandoning a “Cold War mentality,” and respecting the sovereignty of all nations.
Lavrov described China’s proposal as the “most clear” compilation of principles and approaches on the matter, noting that all of its points are intertwined. “The most important thing for us is that the Chinese document is based on an analysis of the reasons for current events and [seeks] to eliminate [their] root causes,” the foreign minister said.
Lavrov acknowledged that the proposal has received criticism for being “vague,” but added that it nonetheless “is a reasonable plan that the great Chinese civilization has put up for a discussion.”
In contrast to Beijing’s proposal to end the Ukraine conflict, Kiev’s ten-point peace formula first floated by President Vladimir Zelensky in the autumn of 2022 is nothing more than an “ultimatum,” Lavrov claimed. The document effectively demands Moscow’s capitulation and the withdrawal of its forces to Ukraine’s 1991 borders, he added.
The latter arrangement would imply that Kiev would recapture Crimea – which voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in 2014 in a public referendum after a Western-backed coup in Kiev – as well as four other former territories that followed the peninsula’s example in 2022. Moscow has repeatedly said that this outcome is unacceptable.
“However, Mr. Zelensky was recently so ‘gallant’ as to suggest that we could start from the February 2022 border. Well, there’s no harm in dreaming,” Lavrov added.
The Ukrainian president suggested last week that a return to Ukraine’s 1991 borders was no longer a precondition for negotiations with Russia. He still insisted, however, that Kiev must regain the territory it lost to Moscow in 2022 following the referendums in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.
Moscow maintains it is open to talks with Kiev, but says any engagement should take into account the “reality on the ground.”
