A White House spokesman said Friday that the US rejects Chinese proposals for a ceasefire in Ukraine because it would just reinforce ‘Russian conquest’ and give Moscow time to plan a fresh push.
Prior to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow the next week, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told the media, “We don’t support calls for a ceasefire right now”.
“We absolutely don’t accept demands for a ceasefire that would be made by the PRC in a meeting in Moscow that would simply benefit Russia”, he said, using the Chinese acronym for the country’s government, the People’s Republic of China.
Making a ceasefire the top priority would relieve pressure on Russian forces and give the Kremlin an opportunity to strengthen its hold on large areas of territory, according to the United States, which is leading a Western coalition to arm Ukraine and support its defence against the more than year-long Russian invasion.
“A ceasefire now effectively ratifies Russian conquest”, Kirby explained.
He further said, “Russia would then be free to use the ceasefire to only further entrench its positions in Ukraine, to rebuild, refit, and refresh its forces so that it could resume attacks on Ukraine at any time”.
“We do not believe this represents a step towards a just and lasting peace”, he added.
President Joe Biden intends to speak with Xi on the phone, Kirby reaffirmed, but he added that no preparations have even been made.
“There is no scheduled call. While the president has stated that he would like to speak with President Xi again, we are not actively engaged in the logistics of doing so at this time”, he stated.
Further, he said, “As far as I know, there has been no outreach to the Chinese to work on logistics”.
“US officials are closely watching to see if China will extend its diplomatic support for Russia during the war to military aid, such as ammunition or weaponry”, he added.
Mr. Kirby stated, “Beijing has not taken it off the table, but we have also not seen any indications, any confirmation, that they’ve made a decision to move in that direction or have actually provided weapons”.
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