Ukraine presses peace plan, points to North Korean involvement in war during talks with China envoy
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Mr Andriy Yermak (right), head of Ukraine's presidential administration, said he and his team presented the battlefield situation and Kyiv's peace proposal to Chinese envoy Li Hui.
PHOTOS: REUTERS
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KYIV - Senior Ukrainian officials, in a meeting with a Chinese regional envoy on March 7, pressed Kyiv’s plan to end the two-year conflict with Russia and presented what they said was evidence of North Korean weaponry supplied to Moscow.
Mr Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, wrote on Telegram that he and his team presented the situation on the battlefield and Kyiv’s peace proposal to Mr Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs.
Mr Yermak said the Ukrainian side “discussed with Li Hui the prospects for establishing a just peace for Ukraine, the restoration of our country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty on the basis of the Ukrainian peace formula”.
Ukraine’s peace plan, as presented by President Volodymyr Zelensky, calls for removing all Russian troops, restoring Ukraine’s 1991 post-Soviet borders and a process to make Russia accountable for its actions.
In a statement on March 8, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Mr Li “held frank and friendly talks” with Mr Yermak, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, on both countries’ ties and the Ukraine crisis.
But the ministry did not give any details.
Switzerland has pledged to stage a peace summit, and several preparatory meetings have already taken place.
Kyiv has been trying to cultivate good relations with Beijing, and China has attended at least one of the meetings, though Russia has not been invited.
Mr Li, making his second trip to Europe, met a Russian deputy foreign minister in Moscow last week and said it was impossible to discuss a Ukraine settlement without Moscow’s participation.
In his account of March 7’s talks, Mr Yermak said his side showed the Chinese delegation examples of fragments of downed missiles and weapons that North Korea made and gave to Russia to attack Ukraine.
In February, Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said experts had found that Russia had fired at least 24 North Korean-made missiles over a period of several weeks.
Mr Yermak’s account of the meeting also said Ukraine raised the issue of what it described as Russian violations of international conventions on prisoners of war and how China might help secure the return of deported Ukrainian children.
Russia denies such deportations have taken place, saying children were removed from the war zone for their own safety. REUTERS
