If China sides with Vladimir Putin in Ukraine then World War Three will have begun, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned.
Beijing today denied claims it is considering giving ‘lethal aid’ to Russia after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday warned top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi of consequences should his country wade in to the ongoing conflict.
Mr Blinken said in an interview that Washington was concerned Beijing was considering supplying weapons to Moscow, ahead of a planned meeting between Yi and the Russian president today.
Today Mr Zelensky told German daily newspaper Die Welt that it was ‘important’ China does not support Russia in the war.
He added: ‘I would like [China] to be on our side. At the moment, however, I don’t think it’s possible.
‘But I do see an opportunity for China to make a pragmatic assessment of what is happening here. If China aligns itself with Russia, there will be a world war and I do think that China is aware of that.’
Mr Zelensky also told Die Welt that Ukraine had passed intelligence on to the president of Moldova suggesting that Russia was plotting a coup there.
‘[President] Maia Sandu never asked me for help, but she thanked me for the information. She knows our situation. Ukraine will always be ready to help Moldova,’ he added.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia’s relations with Moldova were tense and it accused leaders of pursuing an anti-Russian agenda, one week after the Moldovan government said it had foiled a Russian coup attempt.
Mr Zelensky’s World War Three warning came on the day US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine organised in strict secrecy.
He promised $500million in fresh arms deliveries and ‘unwavering’ American support ahead of the first anniversary of Putin’s invasion.
It came as Beijing lashed out over the US suggesting it could supply weapons to Russia.
‘It is the United States and not China that is endlessly shipping weapons to the battlefield,’ China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
‘We urge the United States to earnestly reflect on its own actions, and do more to alleviate the situation, promote peace and dialogue, and stop shifting blame and spreading false information.’
Downing Street today also issued a warning to China not to side with Moscow over the Ukraine conflict.
Asked about US intelligence reports suggesting China was considering the supply of lethal aid, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said: ‘I obviously can’t get into intelligence. But certainly the UK and US share assessments regularly, as you would expect.
‘On this specific issue, any support for Putin’s brutal and illegal war against Ukraine is deplorable.
‘We expect China to stand up for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.’
Mr Biden’s visit to Kyiv came at a crucial moment as the President tries to keep allies unified before expeced spring offensives.
Mr Zelensky is pressing allies to speed up delivery of promised weapon systems and calling on the West to provide fighter jets – something that Mr Biden has declined to do.
Kyiv’s forces are preparing to defend against a Russian assault that could consist of 400 fighter jets, 300 helicopters, 1,800 new tanks and 3,950 armoured vehicles.
Ukraine have so far held off any major Russian gains in the east of the country since Kyiv’s armies pushed them back with two counteroffensives in the north and south in November. The battle lines have remained largely the same since.
This is despite Russia throwing wave upon wave of its soldiers against Ukraine’s frontline defences, with Britain’s MoD reporting last week that more than 800 Russian soldiers were being killed every day.
However, there are now serious concerns in the West that Ukraine is running low on vital ammunition to keep the potential Russian onslaught at bay.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping has stood by Putin, resisting Western pressure to isolate Russia. Chinese-Russian trade has soared since the invasion of Ukraine, and Russia has sold Asian powers including China greater volumes of oil.
Mr Biden’s visit marked a brazen rebuke to Putin, who had hoped his military would swiftly overrun Kyiv within days.
The US President recalled speaking with Mr Zelensky on the night of the invasion, saying: ‘That dark night one year ago, the world was literally at the time bracing for the fall of Kyiv. Perhaps even the end of Ukraine.’
Air raid sirens rang out across the capital at one point as Mr Biden walked with Mr Zelensky during what was the US President’s first visit to the country since Russian troops invaded on February 24 last year.
‘One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,’ Mr Biden added.
‘I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about US support for Ukraine in the war.
‘Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us.’
‘He’s just been plain wrong… Putin’s war of conquest is failing’.
The visit – the first visit by a US president to Ukraine since 2008 – was organised in conditions of strict secrecy.
Biden left Andrews Air Force in the early hours of Sunday.
After handing over their devices, journalists were made aware of his presence on Air Force One just 15 minutes before the plane took off.
The White House did not report how he eventually reached Ukraine but other foreign leaders have travelled to Kyiv by train from Poland.
During the trip, Biden promised an additional $500million (468 million euros) in arms deliveries for Ukraine, mentioning in particular artillery ammunition, howitzers and Javelin anti-tank missiles.
Ukraine is estimated to be burning through thousands more shells than the EU defence industry is currently able to produce each month.
The EU is weighing up plans to try to speed up its production and delivery of much-needed ammunition to help Kyiv’s fight.
Mr Zelensky said he and the US President also discussed the possibility of supplying ‘long range weapons’ to Ukraine – a long-standing request from Kyiv that has been met with reticence in Washington where there is concern that they could be used to strike deep inside Russian territory.
Mr Zelensky hailed the visit as a key sign of support.
‘This conversation brings us closer to victory,’ he said, calling the visit and the promise of additional US arms supplies ‘an unequivocal signal that Russian attempts to win will have no chance’.
After their talks, Biden and Zelensky visited St Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral, which has long been a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Air raid sirens were heard across the city as the two leaders left the church.
They then walked over and laid a wreath at the Wall of Remembrance for the fallen heroes of the Russian-Ukrainian war, as a military salute played and the two presidents stared down in silence for a few moments.
Mr Biden later visited the US embassy in Kyiv before leaving the capital, according to a White House pool report.
He is expected to arrive in Poland on Tuesday where he is due to give a major speech in Warsaw – hours after a state of the nation address by Putin in Moscow that will be largely about the conflict in Ukraine.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also warned China against providing Russia with weapons for the war in Ukraine, saying: ‘For us, it would be a red line in our relationship.’
The conflict has wounded or killed 180,000 Russian soldiers and 100,000 Ukrainian troops, according to the latest estimates from Norway. Other Western sources estimate the war has caused 150,000 casualties on each side.
On the battlefield, Russia said that its forces had taken control of a village near Bakhmut, the eastern city home to the longest-running battle of the war.
The defence ministry in Moscow said that volunteer fighters had ‘fully liberated’ the settlement of Paraskoviivka with the support of regular forces, including paratroopers and artillery.
The statement did not mention Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group which claimed to have captured the village on Friday.
Paraskoviivka is a hamlet on the northern outskirts of Bakhmut.
Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin has said it could take months to capture Bakhmut, which has turned into a key political and symbolic prize.
The months-long battle for the embattled city has exposed tensions between the Wagner paramilitary group and the Russian army, though the Kremlin denies any rift.
In January, Prigozhin claimed his fighters had taken control of nearby Soledar. Two days later, the defence ministry said that Moscow’s forces were controlling the town.
The Kremlin on Monday accused tiny Moldova of ‘anti-Russian hysteria’ after its prime minister called for the demilitarisation of the Moscow-backed separatist region of Transnistria.
Tensions have run high between pro-EU Moldova, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, and Russia during Moscow’s offensive against Kyiv.
‘Moldova is slipping into anti-Russian hysteria,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. ‘The lack of a constructive dialogue harms Moldova itself.’
He said Moscow’s relations with the country were ‘tense’ and warned it to be ‘very, very careful’ with its statements.
Last week Moldovan prime minister Dorin Recean said they should ‘continue our efforts so that Russian troops are withdrawn’ from Transnistria – a narrow region bordering Ukraine. Russian soldiers have been deployed in the area since 1992, after it separated from Moldova.
‘The Trasnistrian area must be demilitarised,’ he said in parliament.
Moldova, a poor country of 2.6 million people with a sizeable Russian minority, has taken a pro-Western turn in recent years, angering Moscow.
After the launch of the full-scale offensive against Ukraine a year ago, the Kremlin has been accused of raising tensions in Transnistria to destabilise Ukraine and Moldova.
Daily Mail (UK)