China ’s president has seemingly denounced Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, telling his Russian counterpart he supports the crisis being resolved through talks.
The Far East superpower is said to be keeping close watch on the Kremlin’s brutal and deadly invasion of its southern neighbour.
Ukraine confirmed earlier today that 137 civilians and military personnel had been killed in the country during the first day of the assault, with more than 300 wounded in the fighting.
Far from the frontlines, Putin took a call from China’s President Xi Jinping, Aljazeera reports.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, XI said: “[The] “situation in eastern Ukraine has undergone rapid changes … [and] China supports Russia and Ukraine to resolve the issue through negotiation."
He added Putin should “abandon the Cold War mentality, attach importance to and respect the reasonable security concerns of all countries, and form a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations”.
According to the Chinese media readout, Putin replied saying: “The United States and NATO have long ignored Russia’s reasonable security concerns, repeatedly reneged on their commitments, and continued to advance military deployment eastward, challenging Russia’s strategic bottom line.
“Russia is willing to conduct high-level negotiations with Ukraine.”
China has refused to call its ally’s actions an invasion or criticise Putin’s actions which have dragged the world to the brink of war.
This evening the nation abstained voting in the United Nations Security Council draft resolution that condemned Russia for invading Ukraine.
Other world leaders have heavily criticised Russia's invasion, amid warnings of heavy sanctions on the Kremlin.
Putin’s troops are marching on Kyiv with brave Ukrainian troops positioned on the streets to block Russian invaders.
Civilians have been urged to target invaders using petrol bombs, with Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60 barred from leaving the country and told to take up arms.
This morning Ukrainian deputy defence minister Anna Maliar said enemy troops had driven two Ukrainian army trucks into Kyiv, followed by a convoy of military trucks.
In a Facebook post she said the Russians were “moving at speed" to the centre of Kiev, adding: “They will surely be destroyed.”
Boris Johnson earlier condemned Russia for unleashing a “tidal wave of violence” on Ukraine , warning Putin would achieve “pariah status”.
He told MPs: “We will continue on a remorseless mission to squeeze Russia from the global economy piece by piece, day by day, week by week.”
