More countries should endorse Ukraine peace plan, China says

China has called for more countries to endorse its peace plan for Ukraine after a round of diplomacy with Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa to support its proposal.

Envoy Li Hui called the three countries representative of the global south and “important forces in promoting world peace” who share similar positions with China.

Mr Li, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, said: “They have maintained communication with both Russia and Ukraine, and stay committed to a political settlement to the crisis through dialogue and negotiation.”

China and Brazil issued a joint peace plan earlier this year that calls for a peace conference with both Ukraine and Russia, and no expansion of the battlefield.

China and Russia were absent from a peace summit hosted in Switzerland in June. Russia was not invited while China chose not to attend.

Initially, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said China had pressured other countries to not attend the peace summit.

Since then, Ukraine has recognised China’s role in a peace process, given its close relationship with Russia, with the Ukrainian foreign minister paying a visit to the country in July, the first since the war began.

While a diplomatic dialogue between Russia and Ukraine so far appears out of reach, the war has shifted.

In August, Ukraine opened a new front in the war by attacking the Russian oblast of Kursk in a surprise move that made clear Russia was also vulnerable.

Mr Zelensky has said the aim was to create a buffer zone to protect Ukraine from attacks.

Mr Li noted the incursion and criticised Western support for Ukraine.

He said: “All sides are worried that the West continues to relax conditions for Ukraine to strike the Russian territory with aided weapons.

“Recent developments on the battlefield confirmed these kind of worries.”

The US and Nato have called China an enabler of Russia in the war.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said China provides equipment, microelectronics and tools that are “enabling Russia to build the missiles, to build the bombs, to build the aircraft, to build the weapons they use to attack Ukraine”.

Just last week, the US expanded sanctions to cover more Chinese firms that trade with Russia.