Zelensky-Xi phone call: A “long and meaningful” phone conversation about peace deal
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00:00 The Chinese side will send a special representative of the Chinese government to visit Ukraine
00:04 and to conduct in-depth communication with all parties for political settlement of the
00:09 crisis.
00:11 And for more, let's cross to Ukraine's capital and correspondent Gulliver Craig.
00:16 Gulliver, the offer to mediate welcomed by the Ukrainians?
00:22 Well, you know, the Ukrainians are just very, very diplomatic with the Chinese.
00:29 They can be extremely sharp-tongued sometimes with their Western allies.
00:33 But with the Chinese, it's very much more the standard diplomatic language.
00:37 This phone call will contribute to the further good development of our bilateral relations.
00:42 And they understand that it's a good thing that Xi Jinping agreed to speak to Volodymyr
00:46 Zelensky.
00:47 They'd been hoping for this for some time.
00:49 The Ukrainians, I think, still hope that China's role in this conflict could be a positive
00:55 one.
00:56 They're worried that China might start arming the Russians, and they don't want the Chinese
00:59 to do this.
01:00 So they want to keep the Chinese on side, partly with a view to a possible mediation,
01:05 partly of course because they are also thinking about the contribution that China will be
01:10 able to make to the eventual reconstruction of Ukraine after hostilities cease.
01:16 But it has to be said that the page China is currently on is very much not the one that
01:20 the Ukrainians would like it to be on.
01:22 This special representative that they are sending is being described by the Chinese
01:26 as a special representative for Eurasian affairs.
01:30 The Ukrainians don't want to see themselves as Eurasians.
01:32 They want to see themselves as Europeans.
01:35 The Chinese don't refer to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
01:38 They don't even refer to the war.
01:40 They refer to the Ukraine crisis.
01:42 That is the language that the Russians want them to be using.
01:46 Recently, President Lula from Brazil visited China and was talking about mediating in terms
01:52 that were widely derided in Ukraine.
01:56 The Ukrainians don't go so far as to deride the Chinese attitude.
01:59 They prefer to pick out the things that they see as possible positive points in what the
02:03 Chinese are saying, for example, their insistence on the respect of territorial integrity and
02:09 sovereignty.
02:10 But the Chinese language today in their readout from the call was talking about people being
02:15 more reasonable and the possibility of opening the way towards a political solution to the
02:21 crisis.
02:22 That's not really what the Ukrainians are talking about at the moment.
02:24 They are talking about their plans for a counteroffensive.
02:27 When's it going to happen?
02:29 And there's a great deal of anticipation and both fear and hope as to how this counteroffensive
02:35 to take back the territory in Ukraine currently occupied by Russia is going to go.
02:39 I've just got back from Zaporizhia region in southeastern Ukraine.
02:44 And it's in that region that most people think the counteroffensive is likely to start.
02:48 Take a look at my report.
02:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]