US 'firmly opposed' to ceasefire between Russia, Ukraine; 'Peace initiative unacceptable'

US is "firmly opposed" to ceasefire between the warring nations Russia and Ukraine, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in an interview with American broadcaster Fox news. According to Kirby, any peace initiative between Kyiv and Moscow whose military has been ensuing fierce battle on the eastern flank of Europe is “unacceptable." Kirby noted that brokering peace isn't possible due to the "current situation" as he pointed to the upcoming visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Russia next week.

'Two countries chafing against international rules-based order': Kirby

Kirby, during televised remarks, insisted that any peace initiative for Ukraine that is endorsed by Russia's President Vladimir Putin and his steadfast ally China's Xi will be dismissed by Washington. “What we have said before, and we’ll say it again today, that if coming out of this meeting, there’s some sort of call for a ceasefire, well, that’s just going to be unacceptable because all that’s going to do is ratify Russian’s conquest to date,” Kirby said during the interview. He derided China and Russia for stepping up the bilateral cooperation lately, noting that they are committed to undermining and “rewriting rules of the game globally.” 

Russia and China “are two countries that are chafing against this international rules-based order that the United States and so many of our allies and partners have built up, since the end of World War II,” asserted John Kirby in his remarks of the Chinese leader's visit to Moscow.

Earlier, the US had categorically rejected China's so-called 12-point Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis roadmap for the cessation of hostilities in Ukraine. China's top diplomat Wang Yi had argued that the plan that would restore peace in Ukraine included “important propositions” that were added by Chinese President Xi Jinping himself which would be “conducive to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.”

Officials in Washington called out the hypocrisy of Beijing, alleging that it has been rampantly supplying lethal weapons to Russia to support its invasion. “China’s been trying to have it both ways — it’s, on the one hand, trying to present itself publicly as neutral and seeking peace, while at the same time, it is talking up Russia’s false narrative about the war,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with ABC. “There are 12 points in the Chinese plan. If they were serious about the first one, sovereignty, then this war could end tomorrow," he asserted. In a separate remark, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, also dismissed China's peace plan, saying, “My first reaction to it is that it could stop at point one, which is to respect the sovereignty of all nations, this was a war of choice waged by Putin."