What China's 12-point paper meant for Ukraine on 24 February 2023
A look back at China's position paper on the war and a Russian decree concerning Moldova and Transnistria.
What did China's new position paper change for Ukraine on 24 February 2023? On that day China unveiled a 12-point paper setting out its position on ending the war in Ukraine. It came ahead of an expected speech by President Xi Jinping on the conflict.
Ukraine responded by saying it hoped China could urge Russia to withdraw its troops. That reaction framed the paper in Kyiv's own terms: the withdrawal of Russian forces was the outcome Ukraine wanted Beijing to press for.
Two days earlier, on 22 February 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin revoked a 2012 foreign policy decree. The decree had underpinned Moldova's sovereignty in resolving the political status of the breakaway Transnistria region. Its revocation touched the relationship between Moscow and Chisinau and the question of Transnistria.
Taken together, the two developments showed diplomacy moving on different fronts within two days: a Chinese initiative on ending the war, and a Russian decision affecting a neighbouring state's sovereignty over a disputed region.
