Phone call builds momentum toward peace

China has advocated since day one that the Ukraine crisis be resolved through dialogue and negotiation. As Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a news conference on Wednesday, the country welcomes all efforts toward a ceasefire and believes that talks are a necessary step in order to achieve peace.

That the US and Ukrainian leaders talked via telephone on Wednesday, their first conversation since their disastrous Oval Office meeting last month, should be regarded as part of such efforts. In their phone conversation, which seems to have been more amicable, the Ukrainian leader agreed to a 30-day ceasefire on strikes on Russian energy and civil infrastructure, which had been proposed by the US president. A reciprocal arrangement had already been accepted by his Russian counterpart.

Although the partial, temporary ceasefire falls short of the full ceasefire that is being sought, Kyiv's agreeing to it marks a meaningful beginning of what appears to be an accelerating process to arrive at a political settlement of the three-year-old conflict.