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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the US should stop threatening Moscow with sanctions if it wants to see progress in Russia-Ukraine peace talks.
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“If the United States is really interested in solving the Ukraine crisis, they should stop brandishing the sanctions card,” Zhao said at a briefing Wednesday (6/4/2022), as quoted by The Moscow Times.
Zhao previously criticized the West’s decision to impose sanctions on Russia, stating that China “always opposes unilateral sanctions.” Another spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry accused the US of “benefiting from the chaos” of the ongoing war.
The White House announced Wednesday that Washington, the G7 and the European Union are preparing another round of sanctions targeting Russian banks and officials. They will also ban new investments in Russia.
The move was in response to repeated shootings in the cities of Mariupol and Kharkhiv, as well as the killing of civilians in the previously occupied Russian city of Bucha — actions that Russian forces have described as war crimes by Kiev and its allies.
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Despite calls from Ukrainian officials, China has repeatedly refused to condemn Russia’s attacks on its pro-Western neighbor, instead trying to maintain trade ties and host Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week.
But in his comments on Wednesday, Zhao called reports of civilian deaths in Bucha “deeply disturbing.”
In recent days, the world has been shocked by images showing the bodies of civilians in the town of Bucha, near Kiev. Ukrainians accuse Russian troops of killing dozens of civilians, a charge Moscow vehemently denies.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Western accusations of Russian troops committing war crimes by executing civilians in Bucha were a “terrible fabrication” aimed at degrading Russian soldiers.
(esn)
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