MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. Russia has a positive attitude to the Chinese peace initiative on Ukraine, as it proposes to address the causes of the conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Izvestia newspaper.

"The [Russian] President [Vladimir Putin] outlined our positive attitude to the Chinese initiative. <...> The [Chinese] initiative is the most realistic because it emphasizes the need to deal with the root causes and eliminate them. Anything else is speculation. We have never said to our Chinese comrades: ‘Let's fix something in your initiative.’ We propose to start a conversation based on the key part of the Chinese initiative, which is to address the root causes," he said.

In February 2023, the Chinese Foreign Ministry published a position paper on a political settlement to the crisis in Ukraine. It contains 12 points, including calls for a ceasefire, respect for the legitimate security interests of all countries, resolution of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, exchange of prisoners of war between Moscow and Kiev, and rejection of unilateral sanctions without a relevant decision by the UN Security Council. In the published document, China called talks "the only way to resolve the crisis in Ukraine" and urged all sides to help Moscow and Kiev "move toward each other" and resume a direct dialogue as soon as possible. It stressed that the international community should create the necessary conditions and provide a platform for the resumption of talks.