Volodymyr Zelenskyy says China helping Russia by staying away from peace summit

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused China of helping Russia to pressure countries not to attend a planned peace summit this month, as Ukraine’s president urged other Asian leaders to join the event.

Speaking in Singapore at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue defence forum, Zelenskyy said Beijing, which has refused to attend the June 15-16 summit in Switzerland, was trying to disrupt the event for Moscow.

The Ukrainian leader said China was “in the hands” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy also criticised China for supplying Russia with dual-use items that the US says are being used to rebuild Moscow’s defence industry.

“With Chinese support to Russia, the war will last longer,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference on Sunday after speaking at the defence forum, which is attended by many defence ministers from the Indo-Pacific region.

Zelenskyy also met US defence secretary Lloyd Austin, his first meeting with a senior US official since the Biden administration partially lifted its ban on the use of some American-supplied weapons to strike military targets inside Russian territory across the border from Kharkiv region.

The Pentagon said Austin had used the meeting to “reiterate unwavering US support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression”.

At the press conference, Zelenskyy said the shift on US-supplied weapons was appreciated but still “not enough.” The White House still bars Ukraine from using long-range ATACMS missiles inside Russia.

The Ukrainian leader also questioned how China could insist that it respected the territorial integrity of other nations when it was enabling Russia to prosecute its war against Ukraine.

Zelenskyy went to Singapore to urge countries to participate in the summit in Switzerland. “We need the support of Asian countries,” Zelenskyy said at the press conference.

Zelenskyy said he did not meet any Chinese officials in Singapore.

Earlier on Sunday, Chinese defence minister Dong Jun told the forum that China had not provided weapons to either party in the war in Ukraine. He said Beijing had “strict” export controls on dual-use items and had “never done anything to fan the flames”.

Washington has not accused Beijing of supplying weapons to Russia. But it says China has provided technology such as engines for drones and cruise missiles and machinery to make ballistic missiles.

Zelenskyy said 106 nations, and 75 leaders, had agreed to attend Ukraine’s peace summit.

Speaking at the Shangri-La event on Friday, Cui Tiankai, a former Chinese ambassador to Washington, said China would not attend because Russia was not invited. He said it was “impossible” to achieve peace without the participation of both parties in the conflict.

Dutch defence minister Kajsa Ollongren told Cui that Chinese participation would help. “I regret that China does not use its position as one of the countries that has an intense dialogue with President Putin,” said Ollongren.

China has published its own position paper on the Ukraine war that fails to condemn Russia’s invasion and contains veiled criticisms of Nato.

But while it has tacitly supported Russia, with Chinese state media copying Moscow’s talking points on the war, Beijing has been scathing of Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza. 

The absence of Russia and China from the Switzerland summit has cast doubt about how much it can achieve. The Swiss government has said others could follow and a second meeting could include Moscow. 

The summit will address three of the issues in Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace plan — security concerning nuclear facilities, food security and the release of prisoners of war — as well as the return of Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia.

Zelenskyy has spent months planning the summit and trying to attract as many countries and leaders as possible. He has strongly urged global south nations as well as presidents Biden and Xi to attend.

“The peace summit needs President Biden,” Zelenskyy said this week. “His absence would only be met by an applause by Putin, a personal, standing applause by Putin.”

Additional reporting by Joe Leahy in Beijing