China announces opposition to sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine
China's foreign ministry has said it opposes imposing sanctions on Russia, news agency Reuters reported on Feb. 23.
According to Chinese diplomats, China believes that "they do not consider sanctions the best way to solve problems."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Beijing hopes the parties "can try to resolve their issues through dialogue and remain calm and exercise restraint.”
A number of countries have already announced a series of sanctions against Russia for its current aggression against Ukraine, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and others.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 21 recognized the independence of the two Russian self-declared statelets in the non-government-controlled parts of Ukraine’s Donbas region, and immediately ordered Russian troops into Ukrainian territory on a self-proclaimed “peacekeeping” mission – in fact an invasion of Ukraine. Thus, Russia unilaterally withdrew from the Minsk agreements.
This happened amid an escalation in the Donbas provoked by the Russian Federation and the threat of a new invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine.
In response, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has already proposed to sever diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation, as Kyiv and the world community condemned the Kremlin's decision, while the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union have announced the first sanctions as a result of Russia's violation of international law.
On Feb. 22, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament granted Putin the use of Russian armed forces abroad.
Earlier this month, Russia raised the issue of alleged “genocide” in the Donbas, and on Feb. 16 opened a criminal case against Ukraine for allegedly mistreating civilians in the Donbas.
There is no evidence for such claims of genocide.
The Russian Federation claims that in August-October 2021 it found five mass graves in the occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.
Journalist Olga Khudetskaya pointed out that these mass graves had been found in territory that has been occupied by Russian proxy forces since 2014, when Russia first launched its armed offensive against the Donbas.
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