Xi departs Russia but fails to achieve breakthrough in Ukraine conflict

Moscow [Russia], March 22 (ANI): Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday departed Russia after pledging to deepen ties with President Vladimir Putin, however, the talks failed to achieve a breakthrough in the Ukraine conflict, reported CNN.
Both leaders did not discuss a Kyiv-proposed peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He said that Kyiv's proposal was a matter of Sino-Ukraine relations.
The two leaders emphasized that peace talks should be used to solve the Ukraine crisis, but Kyiv and the West say any peace agreement must include the withdrawal of Russian troops, reported CNN.
The 10-point peace plan was first presented by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video at a meeting of the Group of 20 nations in November.
The steps include a path to nuclear safety, food security, a special tribunal for alleged Russian war crimes, and a final peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine.
China released last month, a 12-point statement of broad principles on the war that called for respecting the sovereignty of all countries, abandoning the Cold War mentality, ceasing hostilities, resuming peace talks, resolving the humanitarian crisis, protecting civilians and prisoners of war (POWs), keeping nuclear power plants safe, reducing strategic risks, facilitating grain exports, stopping unilateral sanctions, keeping industrial and supply chains stable and promoting post-conflict reconstruction.
But Western leaders have expressed scepticism about China's potential role as a peacemaker and its claimed neutrality. The United States and its allies have instead since last month warned that China is considering sending lethal aid to Russia for its war effort, which Beijing has denied.
Xi spent three days in Moscow this week. His visit ended with Beijing and Moscow concluding more than a dozen agreements bolstering cooperation in areas from trade and technology to state propaganda, according to a Kremlin list.
The leaders' central statement focused on how the two countries would "deepen" their relationship.
However, the two sides failed to move the needle on bringing a resolution to the war, reported CNN.
Meanwhile, Peskov said that he is not surprised by what he called a "hostile" reaction from Western nations to the visit between Putin and Xi Jinping this week.
"As for the reaction of the countries of the collective West, the fact that on almost all issues this reaction is of an unfriendly, deeply hostile nature is no secret to anyone. The coverage of this important visit is no exception," Peskov said.
"Of course, the most important thing is not the reaction of the West, but it's the results of the negotiations that took place. The main thing is the results of the state visit itself," he added.
Peskov's comments came after John Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesman, told that Beijing and Moscow are deepening their relationship in large part due to their mutual interest in challenging the US' global influence, reported CNN.
Kirby also pushed back on China's claim that it had staked out an impartial position regarding the war in Ukraine. (ANI)