China Says Certain Countries Must Stop ‘Fueling the Fire’ in Ukraine Conflict

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang delivers a speech during the Lanting Forum on the Global Security Initiative: China's Proposal for Solving Security Challenges held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP)
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang delivers a speech during the Lanting Forum on the Global Security Initiative: China's Proposal for Solving Security Challenges held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP)
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China Says Certain Countries Must Stop ‘Fueling the Fire’ in Ukraine Conflict

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang delivers a speech during the Lanting Forum on the Global Security Initiative: China's Proposal for Solving Security Challenges held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP)
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang delivers a speech during the Lanting Forum on the Global Security Initiative: China's Proposal for Solving Security Challenges held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP)

China is "deeply worried" that the Ukraine conflict could spiral out of control, foreign minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday, and called on certain countries to stop "fueling the fire" in an apparent dig at the United States.

Beijing, which last year struck a "no limits" partnership with Moscow, has refrained from condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The United States has warned of consequences if China provides military support to Russia, which Beijing says it is not doing.

"China is deeply worried that the Ukraine conflict will continue to escalate or even spiral out of control" Qin said in a speech at a forum held at the foreign ministry.

"We urge certain countries to immediately stop fueling the fire," he said in comments that appeared to be directed at the United States, adding that they must "stop hyping up 'today Ukraine, tomorrow Taiwan'".

"We stand firmly against any form of hegemony, against any foreign interference in China's affairs."

Qin's comments came as Russia's news agency TASS said China's top diplomat Wang Yi was due to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday and ahead of a "peace speech" President Xi Jinping is expected to deliver on Friday, the anniversary of the Ukraine invasion.

Also on Tuesday, China released a paper on the Global Security Initiative (GSI), Xi's flagship security proposal which aims to uphold the principle of "indivisible security", a concept endorsed by Moscow.

Russia has insisted that Western governments respect a 1999 agreement based on the principle of "indivisible security" that no country can strengthen its own security at the expense of others.

On Monday, Wang called for a negotiated settlement to the Ukraine war during a stopover in Hungary.

The same day, US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv in a show of solidarity, promising $500 million worth of military aid to Ukraine and additional sanctions against Russian elites to be unveiled in full this week.

Beijing has refrained from condemning Moscow's operation against Ukraine or calling it an "invasion" in line with the Kremlin, which describes the war as a "special military operation" designed to protect Russia's own security.

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War Two and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

'Lethal weapons'

The United States casts China and Russia as the two biggest nation-state threats to its security. Xi has stood by Russian President Vladimir Putin, resisting Western pressure to isolate Moscow

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Saturday that the United States was very concerned China is considering providing "lethal assistance" to Russia, which he told Wang "would have serious consequences in our relationship."

"There are various kinds of lethal assistance that they are at least contemplating providing, to include weapons," Blinken said in an interview with NBC News, adding that Washington would soon release more details.

The European Union's top foreign affairs official Josep Borrell on Monday warned against China sending arms to Russia, saying it would be a "red line", echoing statements from other European foreign ministers attending a meeting in Brussels.

Any Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would risk a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the US-led NATO military alliance on the other.

Beijing has repeatedly accused Washington of escalating the conflict by supplying weapons to Ukraine. On Sunday during a meeting with Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Wang said the US "should promote a political solution to the crisis, instead of adding fuel to the fire".



Beijing Rejects Ukraine’s Claim Significant Numbers of Chinese Troops Are Fighting Alongside Russia 

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Beijing Rejects Ukraine’s Claim Significant Numbers of Chinese Troops Are Fighting Alongside Russia 

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late 08 April 2025 (issued 09 April 2025), amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)

Ukraine’s claim that significant numbers of Chinese nationals are fighting alongside Russia’s invading army is “totally unfounded,” a Beijing official said Wednesday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Tuesday that the Ukrainian military had captured two Chinese men fighting alongside the Russian army in the eastern Donetsk region and had information that “significantly more” are with Russian forces.

It was the first time that Ukraine had made such a claim about Chinese fighters on its soil amid Russia’s almost three-year invasion.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in Beijing that China has played a “constructive role in politically resolving the Ukraine crisis.”

Lin told a daily news briefing Wednesday that “the Chinese government always asks Chinese citizens to stay away from conflict zones, avoid getting involved in any form of armed conflict, and especially refrain from participating in any party’s military operations.”

His comments appeared to indicate that the captured Chinese had joined Russia’s ranks on their own initiative.

China has provided strong diplomatic support for Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. Beijing has also offered an economic lifeline through the trade in energy and consumer goods, but has not knowingly provided Russia with troops, weapons or military expertise.

It put forward a vague peace plan that was swiftly dismissed by most observers.

Previously, Ukraine and the United States have said that thousands of North Korean troops have helped Russia under an agreement between the Kremlin and the government in Pyongyang.

Both Russia and Ukraine allow foreign soldiers to enlist.

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at a briefing in Washington on Tuesday that the US was “aware” of the reports that Chinese citizens fighting on behalf of Russia were caught in Ukraine and called them “disturbing.”

“China is a major enabler of Russia in the war in Ukraine,” Bruce said. China provides nearly 80% of the dual-use items Russia needs to sustain the war, she claimed.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated in recent years amid disputes over trade, technology and geopolitical competition.

The Kremlin has effectively rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting in Ukraine. The Kyiv government has consented to it. Both sides are believed to be readying spring-summer military campaigns.

In the meantime, both countries have kept fighting a war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and targeted each other with long-range strikes.

The city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk endured a “massive drone attack” overnight, regional head Vadym Filashkin said, injuring an 11-year-old girl, her mother and her grandmother.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 55 Shahed and decoy drones at the country overnight.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 158 Ukrainian drones over 11 Russian regions overnight but reported no casualties or damage.

Several Russian regions temporarily suspended flights at their airports because of the attack, however, and some Ukrainian drones reached Russia’s Orenburg region in the southern Urals located nearly 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, the Defense Ministry said.