China isn't interested in massive disasters in Ukraine, most of Europe – diplomat Bryza

Diplomat Matthew Bryza said this on Espreso.

Former US National Security Council Director for Europe and Eurasia believes that Chinese President Xi Jinping does not want a war of extermination, as he has strong trade relations with Ukraine. Also, if Vladimir Putin is not controlled, he will expand the war, may use nuclear weapons, create massive instability, and cause a catastrophe in Europe.

At the same time, China seeks to build strong economic relations with the EU. In addition, China has expansionist ambitions in the Eastern and Indo-Pacific regions. For Beijing, this means restoring territorial integrity by returning Taiwan.

“From our perspective, that would be also a war of aggression but China has no interest in seeing mass catastrophes across Ukraine and much of Europe. So I don't believe there's any chance that Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin agreed on all of these things when they met during the closing of the Beijing Olympics just before Putin invaded. In fact at that time Putin expected the war to last just a couple of days, he wanted to capture Kyiv and then change the regime with the ending of not only Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government but perhaps his life as well. I don't think there's any chance at that point Putin expected this war to last this long and so Xi Jinping didn't either,” diplomat emphasized. 

• On March 24, US President Joe Biden said that China had not provided Russia with lethal weapons for the war against Ukraine so far, but this does not mean that Beijing will not do so in the future.