RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

China to boycott Ukraine peace talks without Russia – Politico

China will boycott the talks to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict unless Moscow will have a seat at the table, Politico magazine reported on Monday, citing officials familiar with the matter. 

According to Politico, the message was “amplified” during Chinese Eurasia envoy Li Hui’s European tour earlier this month. During his March 7 trip to Kiev, Li met with Andrey Yermak, chief of staff of President Vladimir Zelensky.

Ukraine will likely be discussed during German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to China next month. Chinese President Xi Jinping will then travel to Paris in early May and meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Politico said.

The South China Morning Post reported this month that Li told EU officials that a potential peace summit cannot turn into “a conference that produces a plan that is pushed down the Russians’ throat.” 

Unlike many Western countries, China has refused to blame Russia for the ongoing conflict and stressed that the fighting can only be stopped through diplomatic means. In 2023, Beijing unveiled a 12-point roadmap to a peace settlement, urging both sides to de-escalate. Kiev has since rejected the Chinese proposal.

Ukraine insists that a tangible peace can only be negotiated on Zelensky’s terms, which include the withdrawal of Russian forces from the “illegally occupied” territory of Ukraine. Moscow has rejected this demand as a non-starter, stressing that it will not surrender Crimea and four other former Ukrainian regions that joined Russia after holding referendums on the matter.

Meaningful negotiations between Moscow and Kiev effectively broke down in the spring of 2022, with both sides accusing each other of making unrealistic demands. Russian President Vladimir Putin subsequently said that Ukrainian negotiators had initially agreed to some of Russia’s terms, but then abruptly reneged on the deal. 

Kiev’s lead negotiator David Arakhamia revealed in November 2023 that his team’s main goal was to “buy time” for the Ukrainian military.

Switzerland has proposed to host a major peace summit sometime this year. However, no specific date has been yet set, and no list of potential participants has been revealed. 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian shelling kills four family members in Russia's Belgorod, governor says

Four people were killed in Ukrainian shelling of the village of Nikolskoye in Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, the local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Monday.

Gladkov, writing on Telegram, also said that air defence units in his region had downed eight airborne objects late in the evening. There were no injuries but falling debris damaged roofs on industrial sites and homes.

In his account of the shelling deaths, Gladkov said that the victims - a couple, a grandmother and a boy of 17 - were killed when their house took a direct hit. He said a girl survived and was in intensive care.

Attacks on Belgorod have taken place frequently since 2022, but escalated in recent months, with 25 people killed in a single incident in late December. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed in Russian attacks.