Support China's Proposed Ukrainian War Settlement Proposed, President Putin: They Understand The Roots Of The Problem

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin supports China's proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine, saying Beijing understands the root causes of the problem, in an interview published on Wednesday.

Speaking to China's Xinhua news agency ahead of his visit to Beijing this week, President Putin said Russia remains open to dialogue and negotiations to resolve the conflict in Ukraine that has lasted more than two years.

China's plans and further "principles" announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping last month considered the factors behind the conflict, President Putin said.

"We are positive in our assessment of China's approach to resolving the Ukraine crisis," President Putin said.

"In Beijing, they really understand the root causes of their problems and the meaning of their global geopoliticals," President Putin continued.

And the additional principles, set by President Xi in talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are "realistic and constructive measures" that "develop ideas about the need to overcome the mentality of cold war".

President Xi's additional principles call for "cooling" the situation, conditions to restore peace and create stability and minimize the impact on the world economy.

Beijing submitted 12 points of the paper more than a year ago, outlining general principles to end the war, but not to discuss specifically.

This received a warm welcome both in Russia and Ukraine. Meanwhile, the United States said China presented itself as the bearer of peace but reflected Russia's "false narrative" and failed to condemn its invasion.

Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called China's proposal "the most reasonable plan for discussion."

"The most important thing for us is that Chinese documents are based on an analysis of the reasons for what happened and the need to eliminate the root of this problem. These documents are compiled in logic from general to specific ones," Lavrov said, citing Reuters from RIA.

"This plan was criticized for being unclear. But this is a reasonable plan proposed by the great Chinese civilization for discussion," Lavrov explained.

In addition to China's proposal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has put forward his own peace formula calling for an end to hostilities, Russia's full withdrawal from the entire occupation, post-Soviet border recovery in 1991 and held Russia accountable for its actions.

It is known, a peace summit is scheduled to be held in Switzerland in June. However, Russia was not invited and rejected the initiative because it was deemed useless, saying negotiations should consider "new reality".