US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, including from China, could be a cynical trap that would freeze the conflict. He expressed this opinion on Tuesday, March 28, at a virtual meeting with his colleagues from other countries on the issues of achieving a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.
“What looks attractive on the surface <…> can turn out to be a cynical trap that we need to be very, very careful about,” Blinken said.
According to him, “calls for a ceasefire could actually freeze the conflict, allowing Moscow to “consolidate its gains and buy time to rest, resupply and start attacking again.”
Prior to this, on March 26, White House National Security Adviser John Kirby said that China’s proposed plan to resolve the situation in Ukraine would not lead to a just peace, and also, according to him, this project ignores the interests of Kiev. At the same time, Kirby made this statement even before the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow.
Commenting on this statement, retired US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter noted that in this way Washington abandoned any ideas for a peaceful settlement of the situation even before they were announced.
On March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Xi Jinping paid much attention to the Chinese peace plan for Ukraine during his visit.
On March 18, the Chinese newspaper Global Times wrote that the United States, along with other Western countries, held the key to solving the Ukrainian crisis. And while they refuse to cooperate with Russia, efforts to establish peace are unlikely to be effective, the authors of the material noted.
Earlier, on February 24, China published a document with a position on the diplomatic settlement of the situation in Ukraine. Its goal is to continue its constructive role in resolving the crisis and achieving peace. Chinese Deputy Representative to the UN Dai Bing indicated that Beijing’s priority is a ceasefire and hostilities.
The special operation to protect Donbass, which the Russian leader announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was made against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.
