If China wants to play a constructive role in the Ukraine issue, President Xi Jinping should ask Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, John Kirby, a spokesman for his National Security Council, said on Tuesday. White House.

The leaders of China and Russia focused on strategic cooperation between their countries, criticizing the West, as they discussed a 12-point peace plan to end hostilities in Ukraine that Beijing presented in late February.

Kirby stressed that the US administration does not simply want a ceasefire in Ukraine, because that would allow Russia to maintain the territorial gains it has made and rebuild its forces.

“A ceasefire at this stage”, without the withdrawal of Russian forces from the territories they have occupied, “essentially gives him (President Putin’s s.a.) the time and space he needs to re-equip and man ( his forces),” making up for the losses, the spokesman for the White House National Security Council explained.