Russia’s stated plan to place nuclear weapons in Belarus is proof that talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in March failed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday.
Though China had appeared to position itself as a peace broker between Russia and Ukraine in the weeks leading up to Xi’s three-day state visit to Moscow, the meetings between the two leaders did not yield a meaningful breakthrough on resolving the conflict.
“The signal that Russia wants to place their nuclear weapons in Belarus tells me that the meeting with China was unsuccessful, it’s failed,” Zelensky told reporters during a visit to Bucha.
The Ukrainian president also said Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko has “lost any importance,” claiming he “doesn’t decide anything about what kind of weapons…
