British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has held talks with China’s President Xi Jinping in a “frank and candid” discussion over the situation in Ukraine.
The discussion came after Nato leaders urged China to “abstain” from supporting Russia’s war effort and to refrain from any actions that would help it circumvent sanctions.
A terse readout following the 50-minute telephone call said the two leaders had discussed “a range of issues of mutual interest” including the situation in Ukraine.
“It was a frank and candid conversation lasting almost an hour. They agreed to speak again soon,” the spokesman said.
In a statement following Thursday’s emergency Nato summit in Brussels, alliance leaders expressed concern about comments by Chinese officials and called on them “to cease amplifying the Kremlin’s false narratives”.
They include unsubstantiated Russian claims — strongly denied by Washington — that the US is financing biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine, while China has resisted calls to condemn the invasion.
President Joe Biden, who spoke last week to Mr Xi, said he had pointed out that US and other foreign corporations were already pulling out of Russia because of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “barbaric” behaviour.
-
Pro-Russian troops drive armoured vehicles past local residents in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. Reuters -
Heavy smoke from a warehouse destroyed by Russian troops casts a shadow on a road outside Kyiv. AP -
Sunflowers and an image with a message in Spanish that reads 'Peace in Ukraine' placed outside the Russian embassy in Mexico City by demonstrators during a protest against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. AP -
Ukrainians pay their respects during the funeral Senior Lt Igor Fedorchik in Lviv. The Ukrainian officer was killed when Russian forces shelled the town of New Kahovka. EPA -
St Basil's Cathedral, as viewed from the Red Square in Moscow. EPA -
A young Ukrainian refugee looks out of a tent after crossing the border by ferry into Romania on March 24, 2022. AP -
From left, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi pose for a family photo during the G7 summit in Brussels, Belgium. Reuters -
Smoke billows from a fire on what the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence says is a Russian warship at the port of Berdiansk, Ukraine. Reuters -
Yurii, brother of Ihor Fedorchyk, 38, a soldier killed by Russian shelling in the town of New Kahovka, hugs his mother, Myroslava, as they mourn during his funeral at the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine. Reuters -
A woman cleans broken glass from a staircase in an apartment building damaged by bombing in Kyiv, Ukraine. AP -
Civilian victims of Russian bombings are treated in a hospital in Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA -
People rest with their belongings in a city subway being used as a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
Anti-tank barricades are placed on a street in preparation for a possible Russian offensive in Odesa, Ukraine. AP -
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a house destroyed in a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
Ukrainian servicemen carry a coffin during a funeral in Lviv, Ukraine. EPA -
A Ukrainian serviceman carries a fragment of a rocket outside a building in Kyiv that was destroyed by Russian shelling. AFP -
Nadia holds her 10-year-old granddaughter, Zlata Moiseinko, who suffers from a chronic heart condition, as she receives treatment at a schoolhouse that has been converted into a field hospital in Mostyska, western Ukraine. AP -
A neighbour walks on the debris of a burning house destroyed in a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP
“I made no threats, but I made sure he understood the consequences of him helping Russia,” Mr Biden told a news conference on Thursday at Nato headquarters.
“I think that China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the West than it is to Russia.”
Meanwhile, in the besieged city of Mariupol, authorities said about 300 people died earlier this month in a Russian air strike on a theatre where hundreds of people were sheltering.
If confirmed, it is likely to lead for renewed calls for western powers to step up military support for the Ukrainian forces.
At the same time, there were signs that Mr Putin is being forced to rethink his war aims as his forces remain stalled in the face of unexpectedly fierce resistance from the Ukrainians.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that having accomplished the “first phase” of their military operations, troops would concentrate on “liberating” the Donbas region, which is partly held by Moscow-backed separatist rebels.
Nato has estimated that in four weeks of fighting, between 7,000 and 15,000 Russia soldiers have been killed in combat — compared to the 15,000 they lost over 10 years in Afghanistan.
One western official said the of the 115 to 120 battalion tactical groups the Russians had at the start of the operation, 20 were no longer “combat effective”.
“After a month of operations to have somewhere in the region of a sixth, maybe even a fifth, of the forces being no longer effective, that is a pretty remarkable set of statistics,” the official said.
