Ukraine’s foreign minister discusses Kiev’s ‘peace formula’ with China and US

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke by telephone with top diplomats from China and the United States this Thursday (16).

Kuleba said in a tweet that he and Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, discussed Ukraine’s “peace formula” and ways to speed up the delivery of artillery ammunition.

“We are working with the US and other partners around the clock to ensure that Ukraine has all the ammunition we need for defense and counter-offensive operations,” Kuleba wrote.

Ukraine is burning ammunition faster than the US and NATO can produce it, and the Pentagon is counting on American manufacturers to help fill the gap, the CNN last month.

In his call with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Kuleba said he “discussed the importance of the principle of territorial integrity” and promoted Ukraine’s peace proposal as the means “to end aggression and restore just peace in Ukraine”.

Kuleba did not share additional details about any of the conversations held on Thursday (16).

China’s role in the war

China’s recent call to resume peace talks between Russia and Ukraine has been met with skepticism in the West, as Beijing comes under increasing pressure from the US and its allies over its growing partnership with Moscow.

At the time of China’s proposal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was pleased that Beijing was talking about ending the conflict and was open to seeing what came next.

He said, however, that China had spoken about territorial integrity in general terms, without specifying which country was to blame. So far, Beijing has avoided calling Russia’s war in Ukraine an “invasion”.

“It doesn’t say whose territorial integrity it is,” Zelensky said at the time, adding: “The territorial integrity of our country has been violated.”

(Nectar Gan and Simone McCarthy, from CNN contributed to this text)