Zelensky Accuses China of Undermining Security Summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused China of aiding Russia in putting pressure on countries not to attend an upcoming peace summit pushed by Kyiv.

"Russia is trying to disrupt the peace summit," Zelensky said following an address at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense conference in Singapore on Sunday, describing Beijing as an "instrument" for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The summit will take place in mid-June in Switzerland. Zelensky said that more than 100 countries and global organizations would attend the event, which would focus on nuclear and food security, the release of prisoners of war and the return of Ukrainian children currently in Russia.

"Russia, using Chinese influence in the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit," Zelensky said during the appearance intended to bolster the attendance of Asian nations in Switzerland.

Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry for comment via email.

China has said it does not support either side in the ongoing war in Ukraine, but has maintained a close partnership with Russia, a key ally. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, told reporters late last week that Beijing would likely not attend the summit because Moscow has not been invited to participate.

Zelensky said Ukraine had invited China to the summit. "I regret that China does not use its position as one of the countries that has an intense dialogue with President Putin," Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren, the Financial Times reported her as saying.

"China always maintains that the international peace conference needs to meet the three important elements of recognition from both Russia and Ukraine, equal participation of all parties, and fair discussion of all peace plans," Mao added.

Moscow was not formally invited because the Kremlin had indicated to Switzerland that it would not attend, the BBC reported.

"With China's support to Russia, the war will last longer," the Ukrainian leader said.

Beijing said it has not provided weapons to either side in the conflict and has a tight grasp on the export of goods that could be used for military purposes.

"We have never done anything to fan the flames," said Chinese Defense Minister, Dong Jun.

"What we've seen from China is not the provision of weapons to Russia, but the provision of critical inputs that have allowed Russia to accelerate its own production of tanks, of missiles, of shells," U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, told reporters during a press conference in the Czech capital, Prague, on Friday.

Around 70 percent of machine tools Russia imports are from China, he added, as well as around 90 percent of microelectronics.

"China is propping up Russia's war economy," NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, told the media on Friday. "Russia would not have been able to conduct the war of aggression against Ukraine without the support from China."

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