The Kremlin said on Thursday it welcomed anything that could bring the end of the Ukraine conflict closer when asked what it thought of a phone call a day earlier between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
But the Kremlin said it still needed to achieve the aims of what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
The Chinese and Ukrainian leaders on Wednesday spoke for the first time since Russia sent its troops into Ukraine in February last year, fulfilling a longstanding goal of Kyiv which had publicly sought such talks for months.
NATO welcomes the call
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that he "welcomed" a call between China's President Xi Jinping and Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky, although he added this did not change the fact that China had still not condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday for the first time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, fulfilling a longstanding goal of Kyiv which had publicly sought such talks for months.
The Kremlin said on Thursday it welcomed anything that could bring the end of the Ukraine conflict closer when asked what it thought of a phone call a day earlier between Jinping and Zelensky.
But the Kremlin said it still needed to achieve the aims of what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
ATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also said that he "welcomed" a call between Jinping and Zelensky, although he added this did not change the fact that China had still not condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.