‘Abandon cold war mentality...’: Xi urges Putin to negotiate with Ukraine to resolve crisis

In a telephone call between the two leaders on Friday, day 2 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Chinese President also urged his Russian counterpart to respect ‘reasonable security concerns’ of all countries.

On the second day of Russia's ongoing invasion in Ukraine, ordered by Vladimir Putin a day ago, the Russian President's Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in a telephone call with him on Friday, called for the issue between the two European neighbours to be resolved through negotiations, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Russian president Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Chinese president Xi Jinping during an earlier meeting on the sidelines of a BRICS summit. (Reuters/File Photo_ 

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“The situation in eastern Ukraine has undergone rapid changes, and China supports Russia and Ukraine to resolve the issue through negotiation,” CCTV quoted from a readout of talks between the two leaders.

It further said Xi urged Putin to ‘abandon the cold war mentality.’

“The reasonable security concerns of all countries should be respected and given importance to. There's also a need to form a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiations,” the readout further quoted the Chinese leader as saying.

Meanwhile, Putin, under fire from the West for invading the eastern European nation, told Xi Russia was ready to hold talks with Ukraine, a point made earlier today by Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.

Explaining the reason for launching what he describes as a ‘special military operation,’ Putin informed Xi Moscow's hands were ‘forced’ as the NATO, as well as the United States, had, for long, ‘ignored Russia’s security concerns.'

While the West, led by the United States, has unanimously condemned Moscow's actions on its neighbour's territory, Beijing has refused to call it an ‘invasion.’

“China is closely following the latest developments. We still hope that the parties concerned will not shut the door to peace and engage instead in dialogue and consultation and prevent the situation from further escalating,” Hua Chunying, the spokesperson of China's foreign ministry, said in a briefing on Thursday.

Beijing has also condemned the imposing of sanctions against Russia by the West.

Earlier this month, Putin visited Beijing ahead of the Winter Olympics, held in the city from February 4-20.

(With AFP inputs)