Kremlin-Not Up To Russia To Advise Xi Whether To Visit Ukraine

Wires reporting comments from Kremlin spox Dmitri Peskov stating that "It is not up to Russia to advise the Chinese leader whether he should visit Ukraine." This comes after an interview Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave AP where he invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to Ukraine. Zelenskyy: “We are ready to see [Xi] here...I want to speak with him....I had contact with him before full-scale war. But during all this year, more than one year, I didn’t have [contact],”

• Following Xi's visit to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin earlier this month there has been speculation as to China's next actions with relation to the war in Ukraine. China has both talked up its relations with Russia, but also sought to put forward its plan for peace in Ukraine as a viable path to a peace deal.
• Russia has already risked Beijing's ire with its statement of intent to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Chinese FM spox Mao Ning stated that "In January last year, the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states issued a joint statement, pointing out that a nuclear war cannot be won or fought, emphasising that wars between nuclear-weapon states should be avoided and strategic risks should be reduced,”
• Peskov also states that 'Russia's wider war with hostile states [is] to last for a long time.'