Russia asks China for military aid on Ukraine: US media

Russia has asked China for military and economic aid for its war in Ukraine, US media reported Sunday, hours after the White House warned Beijing would face severe “consequences” if it helps Moscow evade sanctions.

UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT — Ukrainian servicemen evacuate an elderly woman on a stretcher from the city of Irpin on March 13, 2022. – Russian forces advance ever closer to the capital from the north, west and northeast. Russian strikes also destroy an airport in the town of Vasylkiv, south of Kyiv. A US journalist was shot dead and another wounded in Irpin, a frontline northwest suburb of Kyiv, medics and witnesses told AFP. Photo: Aris Messinis.

US officials told media that Russia had requested military equipment and support from its key ally.

Moscow also asked Beijing for economic assistance against the crippling sanctions imposed against it by most of the Western world, the New York Times said, again citing anonymous officials.

The officials declined to explain exactly what Russia had requested, or whether China had responded, according to the reports.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington told multiple outlets “I’ve never heard of that” when asked about the alleged requests.

The reports came just a few hours after the White House announced a high-level US delegation would meet with a top Chinese official in Rome Monday.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks to reporters Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House. File Photo: US White House via Flickr.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party’s chief diplomat, “will discuss ongoing efforts to manage the competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security,” National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said Sunday in a statement.

Beijing has declined to directly condemn Moscow for launching its invasion, and has repeatedly blamed NATO’s “eastward expansion” for worsening tensions between Russia and Ukraine, echoing the Kremlin’s prime security grievance.

Sullivan made a round of Sunday talk shows to say the White House was “watching closely” to see whether China provides material or economic support to Russia to help it evade the punishing impact of sanctions.

Chinese top diplomat Yang Jiechi. File Photo: US State Department via Flickr.

“It is a concern of ours, and we have communicated to Beijing that we will not stand by and allow any country to compensate Russia for its losses from the economic sanctions,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” show.

Sullivan said that while he did not wish to “brandish threats” against major economic rival China, “we are communicating directly, privately to Beijing that there will absolutely be consequences for large-scale sanctions-evasion efforts.”

Beijing said this past week that its friendship with Russia remains “rock solid” despite international condemnation of Moscow, and has expressed an openness to help mediate an end to the war.