For the first time since the beginning of the special military operation of the Ukrainian army in the Russian Kursk region, China directly officially commented on what is happening.
The Foreign Ministry in Beijing called on both sides to “de-escalate”. The agency indicated that it is monitoring what is happening on the border between Ukraine and Russia. “China will continue to maintain communication with the international community and play a constructive role in promoting a political settlement of the crisis,” said Beijing's position.
The People's Republic of China also announced that “the battlefield should not be expanded”, indirectly calling on the Ukrainian army to leave the Kursk region.
China, which remains the most important international ally of the aggressor Vladimir Putin, has at no time so far called on the Russian army to withdraw from all occupied territories in Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula.
According to military experts, since the beginning of the full-scale war that Putin launched against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, China has not directly supplied weapons and missiles to Moscow, but has provided it with military components to manufacture them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday for the first time commented on the entry of Ukrainian forces into the southern Russian Kursk region. Ukraine proves that it is "capable of providing justice" and to exert "pressure on the aggressor", the Ukrainian leader pointed out. Neither Zelensky nor the military in Kiev provided more details about the current state of the Ukrainian troops' offensive on Russian territory. Analysts are of the opinion that the goals of the Ukrainian operation are twofold: firstly, to humiliate Putin's regime, and secondly - for the Russian army to transfer troops from Donbass to Kursk.
The purpose of the Ukrainian attack in the Kursk region is to destabilize Russia, writes the British newspaper "Guardian". It remains unclear how long the operation will last in the medium term amid Kremlin threats that it will be crushed with the help of Russian reinforcements. Russia believes that several hundred Ukrainian soldiers are involved in it, but according to a quoted by the "Guardian" a Ukrainian official their number amounts to thousands. Kiev caught Russia off guard by striking a thinly defended sector of the front that had not seen significant fighting since spring 2022, breaching limited border defenses. After several days of fighting in southwestern Russia, both sides are reporting gains, but fighting continues.