(Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Kyiv does not want China to act as a mediator in its 29-month-old conflict with Russia but hoped Beijing would apply greater pressure on Moscow to end the war.
Zelenskiy, speaking to French media outlets, also said that while Ukraine insisted on restoring its 1991 post-Soviet borders it would consider opening talks with Russia before all of Moscow’s troops were withdrawn if the conditions were right.
“If China wants to, it can force Russia to stop this war. I do not want (China) to act as a mediator. I would like it to put pressure on Russia to put an end to this war,” Zelenskiy told reporters.
“Just as the United States is applying pressure, just as the European Union is applying pressure. The more influence a country has, the greater should be its pressure on Russia.”
China, which has a “no limits” partnership with Russia, has advanced its own peace plan to end the war based on non-escalation, direct negotiations and humanitarian assistance.
It stayed away from the first peace summit on Ukraine held last month in Switzerland, but has stepped up diplomatic efforts and hosted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba last week.
Zelenskiy repeated his earlier contention that Russia, which was excluded from the peace summit, should attend a subsequent gathering he hopes to hold later this year.
“Otherwise, we will not obtain viable results,” he was quoted as saying.
“All our conditions will be in place. That does not mean that at that precise moment, we will recover our 1991 borders.”
A just peace for Ukraine, he said, “involves recovering our territorial integrity, but that does not mean that this must be done solely through arms.”
Russian forces currently occupy a little less than 20% of Ukrainian territory and have been making incremental gains in the eastern part of the 1,000-km (600-mile) front since the capture of the town of Avdiivka in February.
In his comments, Zelenskiy acknowledged the advances and said they were caused by delays in equipping brigades, Russia’s refusal to take notice of its own losses and restrictions by Kyiv’s Western partners on how their weapons could be deployed.
“It’s difficult throughout the eastern front. They are concentrating all their efforts in the east,” he said, noting their drive westward to the Ukrainian-held city of Sloviansk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last month said Moscow was willing to negotiate an end to the war, but talks were contingent on Ukraine giving up the four regions Russia annexed in 2022.
Zelenskiy said giving up territory was not an option.
“It’s impossible. It runs against our constitution. And it is an issue that is up to us alone,” he said.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Stephen Coates)
