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China has advocated since day one that the Ukraine crisis be resolved through dialogue and negotiation. As Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a news conference on Wednesday, the country welcomes all efforts toward a ceasefire and believes that talks are a necessary step in order to achieve peace.
That the US and Ukrainian leaders talked via telephone on Wednesday, their first conversation since their disastrous Oval Office meeting last month, should be regarded as part of such efforts. In their phone conversation, which seems to have been more amicable, the Ukrainian leader agreed to a 30-day ceasefire on strikes on Russian energy and civil infrastructure, which had been proposed by the US president. A reciprocal arrangement had already been accepted by his Russian counterpart.
Although the partial, temporary ceasefire falls short of the full ceasefire that is being sought, Kyiv's agreeing to it marks a meaningful beginning of what appears to be an accelerating process to arrive at a political settlement of the three-year-old conflict.
In a US State Department news briefing after the call, spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that technical teams would meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea on the way to a full ceasefire, which "could be the first step toward the full end of the war".
That both Russia and Ukraine have agreed to eliminate key civil and energy infrastructure facilities from attack zones for 30 days is an indication of the common wish of the two parties to de-escalate the conflict. As Bruce said, this is significant as it is "the first agreement that has created the potential of a de-escalation". Despite the hard-won progress, relevant parties should be well aware of the difficulties ahead, as it will prove challenging to find common ground given the stark divide in their respective demands.
It is against this backdrop that the technical teams involved will meet in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to begin working on the nitty-gritty of implementing the deal and hopefully broadening it. This is a critical opportunity for the US side to align Kyiv and Moscow on a comprehensive 30-day truce, which could provide the springboard for talks aimed at a final settlement.
Although Kyiv remains skeptical of Moscow's commitment to peace, urging the US to increase its military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, it still believes that a ceasefire would "open up opportunities". As the Ukrainian leader said, "once a ceasefire is in place, even if one side attempts provocations, there is still political will, publicly announced to the world".
