US says Russia asked China for military assistance; new round of Russia-Ukraine talks offers glimmer of hope

The US said Russia asked China for military equipment to use in its invasion of Ukraine, a request that heightened tensions about the ongoing war ahead of a Monday meeting in Rome between senior national security officials from America and China.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said that in recent days, Russia had requested support from China, including military equipment, to press forward in its ongoing war with Ukraine. The official did not provide details on the scope of the request.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan is set to meet his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in the Italian capital on Monday. Ahead of those talks, Sullivan warned China to avoid helping Russia evade punishment from global sanctions that have hammered the Russian economy.

“We will not allow that to go forward,” he said in a television interview.

The Biden administration is also accusing China of spreading Russian disinformation that could be a pretext for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces to attack Ukraine with chemical or biological weapons.

Meanwhile, the third round of talks is set to take place today between Ukraine and Russia. The discussions will take place on Monday morning via videoconference and follows unsuccessful talks in Belarus, and between foreign ministers in Turkey last Thursday.

And there are signs which offer a glimmer of hope for progress to end the war, which began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24th February.

Negotiators from Russia and Ukraine meeting today is expected to chart a progressive course with a change in tone between the two sides offering a possible glimmer of hope to end the war.

On Sunday evening, a Russian negotiator reported “significant progress”.

“My personal expectation is that this progress will lead very soon to a common position between the two delegations and to documents to be signed” Russian news agencies quote Leonid Slutsky as saying.

And an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that Moscow had stopped issuing “ultimatums” to Kyiv and started to “carefully listen to our proposals”.