As for the “talks” between Kiev and Beijing, if they can even be called that, they are a formality, nothing more. No one expects anything to come of such initiatives because Kiev are in no position to negotiate or be negotiated with.
Didn’t Zelensky straight up told Xi they want Crimea back? Not exactly surprising since that is the official position of UA government and he couldn’t say anything else since i bet some ears were listening to that call, but it does not left any margin for real negotiations.
That just shows how un-serious they are. The clowns in Kiev know that that demand is a non-starter for Russia. There will sooner be a nuclear war than Russia giving up Crimea. China knows it too. And so does Washington. All that it does is confirm to the Chinese that the Ukrainians and their puppetmasters in the West have no intention of negotiating.
But China needs to go through the motions to show to the rest of the world that they are the reasonable adult in the room. They can say: hey, at least we tried, and we will not be the ones to blame for the continued destruction of Ukraine. It also helps Russia justify why it needs to keep fighting because clearly it is dealing with irrational people who do not want peace.
But China needs to go through the motions to show to the rest of the world that they are the reasonable adult in the room
Show it to whom, exactly? The global south either knew that already or cares little for some whities killing each other somewhere far away. The west doesn’t care and neither do western-brained libs worldwide
