China’s president ‘hasn’t talked once’ to his Ukrainian counterpart or visited Ukraine, says John Kirby
WASHINGTON
The US said Tuesday that meetings this week between Russia and China’s presidents do not give it hope that the Ukraine war will end “anytime soon.”
Chinese “President Xi (Jinping) saw fit to fly all the way to Moscow (but) hasn’t talked once to (Ukrainian) President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy, hasn’t visited Ukraine, (and) hasn’t bothered to avail himself of the Ukrainian objective,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters during a daily press briefing.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Xi in Moscow, Kirby said: “We haven’t seen anything that they’ve said, they’ve put forward, that gives us hope that this war is going to end anytime soon.”
“As a matter of fact, Mr. Putin said something to the effect today — or his spokesman, (Dmitry) Peskov, I think, said something to the effect today that they’re willing to negotiate but it’s the West and Ukraine that are refusing, which of course is absolutely false,” he added.
