Damaged buildings on Snake Island; Landing ship of the Russian Navy anchors off the coast in new satellite images
Russia has asked China for military assistance in Ukraine, including drones, a senior US official said on Sunday.
CNN has reached out to the Russian embassy in the US for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday that China’s assistance to Russia is a “concern.”
“We are also closely watching to see the extent to which China actually provides any form of support, material or economic assistance to Russia. That is a concern of ours. And we have informed Beijing that we will not stand by and allow any country to compensate Russia for the damage caused by economic sanctions,” Sullivan said.
Mr. Sullivan said the US had made it clear to Beijing that there would be “absolute consequences” for “large-scale” efforts to give the Kremlin an alternative to US sanctions.
“We will not allow that to continue and allow Russia to escape economic sanctions from any country in the world,” he said.
Sullivan will meet his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday.
Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu told CNN on Sunday that he had not heard of Russia’s request.
“I’ve never heard of it. China is deeply concerned and saddened by the Ukraine situation. We sincerely hope that the situation will ease and peace will return soon,” Pengyu said. “The current situation in Ukraine is really worrisome. Every effort should be made to support Russia and Ukraine to conduct negotiations despite the difficult situation to achieve a peaceful outcome. We support it. and encourage all efforts conducive to a peaceful resolution of the crisis.The top priority now is to prevent the situation from escalating, even spiraling out of control. , including stakeholders, there was consensus on this.”
“China urges to exercise maximum restraint and prevent a major humanitarian crisis. China has launched an initiative to respond to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. China has provided humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, and will continue to do so,” Pengyu said.
The White House said last week that China was “complying with requests made” for the sanctions.
“Our assessment right now is that (China) is complying with the requirements set out, but we would continue to encourage any country to think hard about their role in history as all we both look back,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a news conference Wednesday.
