China was not on Russia's side in Ukraine war - China's ambassador to EU

China's Ambassador to the European Union, Fu Cong, has said that China was not on Russia's side in the war being waged by Moscow against Ukraine.

According to Ukrinform, he said this in an interview with The New York Times.

Commenting on Xi and Putin's statement about "no limit" friendship between China and Russia, which they signed three weeks before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the ambassador said that China was not on Russia's side in the war and that some people "deliberately misinterpret this because there's the so-called 'no limit' friendship or relationship."

"'No limit' is nothing but rhetoric," the diplomat said.

He noted that China had not provided military assistance to Russia, nor recognized its efforts to annex Ukrainian territories, including Crimea and the Donbas.

According to the ambassador, Beijing has not condemned the invasion because it understood Russia's claims about a defensive war against NATO encroachment, and because his government believes "the root causes are more complicated" than Western leaders say.

Commenting on the lack of a call between the leaders of Ukraine and China, Ambassador Fu noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping is "very busy" and that there were "frequent lower-level contacts between the two countries."

"I know people are fixated on the presidential call. The fact that President Xi is not speaking to Zelensky does not signify that China is on the side of Russia on the Ukrainian issue," Fu said.

Photo:  twitter.com/FuCong17