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Politics

China Affirms Friendship With Ukraine, Promises to ‘Never Attack’

  • Foreign Ministry endorses ambassador’s supportive comments
  • Remarks appear to distance Beijing from Moscow’s invasion
Firemen work to clear the rubble in Kharkiv on March 14. 

Firemen work to clear the rubble in Kharkiv on March 14. 

Photographer: Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images

Bloomberg News
Updated on

China’s foreign ministry endorsed remarks by its envoy to Ukraine, in which Beijing delivered some of its most supportive comments yet toward the war-torn country. 

Ambassador Fan Xianrong had told Lviv Governor Maksym Kozytskyi during a meeting Monday that China was a “friendly country for the Ukrainian people” and would “never attack Ukraine,” according to a summary posted on the Lviv government’s website. He went on to praise the strength and unity demonstrated by the Ukrainian people, in an apparent reference to their efforts to resist Russia’s ongoing invasion.