UK urges China to encourage Russia to withdraw from Ukraine

LONDON - The UK Friday urged China to seize the opportunity of President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow next week to encourage President Vladimir Putin to withdraw Russian forces from Ukraine.

"If China wants to play a serious role in restoring sovereignty to Ukraine, obviously we would welcome that," Jordan news agency (Petra) reported British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman told reporters.

"Any agreement that is not based on Ukraine's sovereignty and right to self-determination is not a peace agreement at all, so we will continue to call on China, as we have done before, to join other countries around the world in asking Putin to withdraw his forces," the British spokesman added. - BERNAMA-PETRA