https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/28/world/russia-ukraine-news
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken last week in Washington.Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Tuesday that some nations’ calls for a cease-fire in Ukraine could be “a very cynical trap” intended to freeze the conflict in place and allow Russia to hold onto seized territory while resting its troops for new offensives.
Mr. Blinken’s message underscored the belief among President Biden and his aides that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and foreign leaders supporting him are not serious about potential peace talks.
Although he did not name any country, Mr. Blinken appeared to be aiming his criticism mainly at China, which has tried to present itself as a neutral mediator in the war and has called for a cease-fire and peace talks. China is Russia’s most important strategic partner and has given Russia diplomatic support throughout the fighting and promoted disinformation on the war.
Last week, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, made a three-day state visit to Russia. Chinese officials said before the trip that it was a peace mission, but a nine-point joint statement from the two governments showed that Mr. Xi was there to strengthen the standing of Mr. Putin and reinforce pledges of economic and diplomatic cooperation. A coalition led by the United States and European nations imposed sanctions on Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and many countries have voted in international venues, including the United Nations, to condemn Russia’s war.
“I think we all have to be very much aware — and beware — of what may seem to be well-intentioned efforts, for example, to call for cease-fires, which would potentially have the effect of freezing in place the conflict, allowing Russia to consolidate the gains it has made, and simply using the time to rest and re-fit and then re-attack,” Mr. Blinken said. He was speaking during a video meeting of foreign ministers from around the world at an opening session of the second “Summit for Democracy,” which President Biden and Mr. Blinken are hosting this week.
“And so what seems to be appealing on the surface — who wouldn’t want the guns to be silent? — can also be a very cynical trap that we have to be very, very careful of,” Mr. Blinken said.
Separately, White House and State Department spokespeople said Tuesday that the U.S. government had told Moscow it would no longer share data on American nuclear forces with Russia, a twice-per-year obligation under the New START nuclear arms control treaty. Mr. Putin said last month that Russia was suspending its participation in the treaty, and since then it has violated the treaty by not sharing the obligatory data on its nuclear arsenal, U.S. officials said.
Russia had already been avoiding compliance with the treaty by not allowing American inspectors to examine its arsenal following a period after March 2020 when both sides decided to temporarily halt visits because of the pandemic, the State Department said in January. U.S. officials said Tuesday that outside of the suspension of data sharing, they would continue to abide by the terms of the treaty and are encouraging Russia to end its suspension.
The democracy summit’s opening session on Tuesday morning that involved the foreign ministers was on the war in Ukraine. Mr. Blinken spoke after Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, reiterated his government’s 10-point “peace formula,” which calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops from “every square meter of Ukrainian territory.” Ukrainian leaders have said that must happen before any peace talks begin.
In late February, China released a 12-point statement of principles on the war that some Chinese officials called a peace plan, but American and European officials have denounced it as a smoke screen intended to make Russia appear willing to work with China to seek peace while Mr. Putin presses the war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has refrained from criticizing China and has sought to speak directly with Mr. Xi, but has so far been rebuffed.
Addressing Mr. Kuleba, Mr. Blinken said, “I think it’s safe to say, Dmytro, that no one wants peace more than the Ukrainian people, because they’re the ones who are suffering directly from its absence and from this aggression, but it has to be just and it has to be durable, otherwise it’s ultimately for naught.”
Other foreign ministers echoed that message in their remarks. “The international community hopes that peace will come to Ukraine as soon as possible, but it must not be a mere cease-fire,” Yoshimasa Hayashi, foreign minister of Japan, said in a pre-recorded speech. He added that any end to the war has to be “a just peace based on the principles of the U.N. Charter.”
