‘China urged Russia to delay Ukraine war till Olympics’
Washington, Mar 3:A Western intelligence report has revealed that top Chinese officials had urged senior Russian officials to postpone invasion into Ukraine till the end of Winter Olympics in Beijing, according to senior Joe Biden-led administration officials and a European official.
According to The New York Times, the latest report has indicated that senior Chinese officials had some knowledge about Russia’s war plans long before the actual invasion, which began on February 24.
The classified intelligence on the exchange between the Chinese and Russian officials was collected by a Western intelligence service and considered credible by officials, NYT reported.
According to one official, who is familiar with the intelligence, it is not clear whether the material gives clear indication of the conversations about the invasion between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin ahead of Olympics.
However, China has refuted the report.
“The claims mentioned in the relevant reports are speculations without any basis, and are intended to blame-shift and smear China,” CNN quoted Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, as saying.
Earlier, China had refused to join the countries in imposing sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine.
“We will not join such [unilateral] sanctions, and we will continue to maintain normal trade, economic and financial ties with the relevant parties,” Sputnik quoted Guo Shuqing, the head of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Committee (CBIRC), as saying on Wednesday.