We had the honor of interviewing Mr. Pavlo Ryabkin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to China, who has held this important position since 2023. We discussed important issues such as the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Ukrainian-Chinese relations, international peace summits, and China's potential role in peace initiatives.

How would you describe the current relationship between China and Ukraine? How has the Russian invasion of Ukraine affected the relationship between the two countries?

Ukraine attaches great importance to its traditional friendly relations with China, which are of a strategic nature, and we are always committed to deepening these relations and making them full of substance.

Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine will certainly have an impact on all aspects of Ukraine's activities, including its relations with China. Beijing declared neutrality on the issue of Russia's war against Ukraine and stressed that both Kiev and Moscow are good friends of Beijing and that Beijing attaches great importance to its relations with them.

At the same time, this position is difficult to understand when Russia’s occupation forces are burning Ukrainian cities, destroying civilians and infrastructure, when it is holding a “pseudo-referendum” in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and subsequently declaring these territories Russian territories, when the Russians are kidnapping our children and holding our prisoners of war in inhumane conditions, and when the Kremlin’s dictator has visited Beijing twice since February 24, 2022.

On the contrary, we have seen an unprecedented solidarity of the majority of the world in support of Ukraine. We value the important assistance we have received during these years of war in the security, economic and political fields. This assistance is and will remain an important aspect of our post-victory foreign policy.

We are open to dialogue with China and look forward to positive progress in the deepening of our bilateral relations, which will truly contribute to restoring a just and sustainable peace in Ukraine.

The International Peace Summit is about to be held in Switzerland. Ukrainian President Zelensky and senior Ukrainian officials have repeatedly stated that China can play a constructive role in the peaceful resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian war, and that China's participation in the peace summit is crucial to Ukraine. Why is China's participation in this summit and the entire peace process so important to Ukraine?

The first high-level peace summit, which will be held in Switzerland on June 15-16, should be an effective platform to agree on a common vision on how to end the war in Ukraine. The summit will focus on issues of global importance: nuclear radiation and safety, food security and humanitarian aspects.

The summit should reaffirm commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of States within their internationally recognized borders; and the need to restore a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace in Ukraine on the basis of the Charter of the United Nations and the main principles of international law.

We firmly believe that China plays an extremely important role in achieving peace and look forward to China's participation in the first Peace Summit.

Ukraine hopes that Beijing, as an influential world power and permanent member of the UN Security Council, can find a way to persuade Russia to stop its aggression and withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory, thus opening the way for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

For some countries, including China and Brazil, the decision not to invite Russia to the peace summit at this stage is puzzling to say the least. China has repeatedly stated that it is willing to support a peace conference recognized by both sides of the conflict. Why is Russia not invited to the event, and what does Ukraine think of Russia's remarks about its willingness to negotiate?

We know that representatives of the Russian Federation should join the peace process at some point. At the same time, we currently do not see any signs that Russia has given up its aggressive plans for Ukraine.

As our leaders have repeatedly stated, Russia can be invited to talks only after the international community agrees on a framework for peace. This position will remain unshakable.

The logic of the peace plan implies that countries can contribute to the implementation of certain points of it and act as guarantors. Which points of the peace plan do you think China can support?

On February 24, 2023, China released its position, which contains a general idea of how to end Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Some of the ideas in the document are consistent with the Ukrainian peace plan proposed by President Zelensky at the G20 summit in Indonesia on November 15, 2022.

These common points include: the need to respect the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the sovereignty of all countries; renounce the use of nuclear weapons and ensure the safe operation of civilian nuclear facilities; and ensure food security.

In addition, similar provisions for ensuring security in relevant areas are also reflected in the recently announced China-Pakistan "Six-Point Consensus". This is the basis for cooperation that we can consider promising.

In 2023, China published its position on the political settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian war and put forward its own 12-point concept for the peace process, which it recently supplemented and concretized. In addition, Li Hui, the Chinese government's special representative for Eurasian affairs, has launched the third round of shuttle diplomacy on the political solution. How does Ukraine evaluate China's efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution to the Russian-Ukrainian war?

We welcome Beijing's recent more active engagement in finding ways to deter Russian aggression against our country. China has put forward a series of initiatives, the latest of which is the China-Brazil consensus on a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis.

We note that our processes in China and in Ukraine to restore a sustainable and just peace as soon as possible are parallel, but unfortunately, they have not yet converged. The first Ukrainian Peace Summit, which will be held soon in Switzerland, will be an excellent opportunity to synchronize our efforts. On this occasion, I once again urge China to take advantage of this historic opportunity to make its position known and to participate in our event, which will bring together the world's major countries, including those of the Global South.

Our project aims to convey the truth about Ukraine in Chinese, and we have already formed a fairly active audience in mainland China who sincerely support the Ukrainian people against the occupiers. During your tenure as ambassador to China, have you noticed the Chinese people's attention and support for Ukraine?

How Chinese citizens perceive our country is determined by the current information environment, which, unfortunately, is not in our favor.

Chinese media have partially reported on events in our country and have clearly followed the government's position, calling Russia's aggression the "Ukrainian crisis" for three consecutive years.

There is no doubt that many Chinese are well aware of what is happening, call Russia the aggressor, and support Ukraine.

At the Embassy, we are pleased to note the positive attitude of our Weibo audience. We are actively working with these people and trying to help them get the latest information about the events in Ukraine. I would like to express my gratitude to all the Chinese friends who care about us. Their support is very important to us.