By Jim
Geraghty
Wednesday,
July 05, 2023
For a
long while now, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made oddly optimistic comments about China playing some sort
of useful role in bringing the Russian invasion of Ukraine to an end. For much
of the war, the Chinese government has combined bland calls for peace with
criticism of NATO supplying Ukraine with weapons, declaring, “the continued supply of heavy
weapons to one side of the war is not conducive to the end of the war as soon
as possible, it is adding fuel to the fire.” (Indeed, a rapid Russian conquest
of Ukraine would end the war quickly, but it’s hard to blame the Ukrainians or
the West for attempting to avert that outcome.)
But
if this report in
the Financial Times is accurate, we have the first clear sign of Beijing
actually playing a useful role in the conflict.
Xi Jinping personally warned Vladimir Putin against using nuclear
weapons in Ukraine, indicating Beijing harbours concerns about Russia’s war
even as it offers tacit backing to Moscow, according to western and Chinese
officials.
The face-to-face message was delivered during the Chinese president’s
state visit to Moscow in March, the people added, one of Xi’s first trips
outside China after years of isolation under his zero-Covid policy.
Since then, Chinese officials have privately taken credit for convincing
the Russian president to back down from his veiled threats of using a nuclear
weapon against Ukraine, the people said.
It is
unlikely that Xi’s words by themselves deterred Putin from using a nuclear
weapon, but it is helpful that a leader who pledged a
“no-limits partnership” with Russia shortly before the war sent a clear signal that if
Putin used nuclear weapons, China would not have his back.
Elsewhere,
the International
Atomic Energy Agency offers
some tentative good news about the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts present at Ukraine’s
Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) have in recent days and weeks inspected
parts of the facility – including some sections of the perimeter of the large
cooling pond – and have also conducted regular walkdowns across the site, so
far without observing any visible indications of mines or explosives, Director
General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.
The IAEA experts have requested additional access that is necessary to
confirm the absence of mines or explosives at the site, Director General Grossi
said. In particular, access to the rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4 is
essential, as well as access to parts of the turbine halls and some parts of
the cooling system at the plant, he added.
The
Ukrainian Armed Forces contended
yesterday:
The Armed Forces of Ukraine officially announce the possible
preparation, in the nearest future, of a provocation on the territory of the
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, occupied by Russian terrorists since March 4,
2022.
According to operational information, today, outside objects resembling
explosive devices were placed on the outer roofs of the third and fourth power
units of the EEA. Their pídriv does not have to damage energy blocks, but can
create a picture of shelling from Ukraine. Russian media and telegram channels
are misinformed about this.
If
Russian forces are refusing to allow IAEA inspectors on the roof, that’s reason
for concern. In the past year, talking heads
on Russian state television have called for the destruction of all of Ukraine’s
critical infrastructure. And about a
month ago, the Nova Kakhovka dam was destroyed, with far-reaching consequences.
No comments:
Post a Comment