FT: Xi Jinping allegedly warned Putin not to use nuclear arms in Ukraine

The Kremlin can not confirm the report from The Financial Times which said that Chinese leader Xi Jinping personally warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

"As a result of President Xi's landmark visit to Moscow, a lot of information was provided, including a press statement. The essence of the talks was clearly expressed in the documents following the statement, so there is a lot of information. Everything else is fiction,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The Financial Times earlier said that Chinese President Xi Jinping, when visiting Moscow in March, personally warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin against the use of nuclear arms in Ukraine. The London-based publication referred to its own sources among Western and Chinese officials. Xi supposedly told Putin about that during their tete-a-tete meeting.

A former Chinese government official confirmed that Xi personally advised Putin not to use nuclear weapons noting that this position was included in the Chinese peace plan for Ukraine.

China presented its peace plan to resolve the conflict in Ukraine on February 24. The document included 12 paragraphs, including activities to counter the threat for the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

Xi's warning against the use of nuclear weapons took a key position in China's campaign to re-establish ties with the EU, a senior Chinese government adviser said.

NATO warns Russia of nuclear conflict too

Moreover, three nuclear NATO members - the United States, Great Britain and France - also warned Russia against the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

According to the publication, NATO said that they would resort to non-nuclear weapons to strike the Russian Armed Forces. 

However, Vladimir Putin allegedly decided himself that the use of nuclear weapons would not give Russia any advantages, but would lead to the contamination of Russia's newly acquired territories, the FT said with reference to its sources close to the Kremlin.

In October 2022, Putin declared that there was neither political nor military sense in a nuclear strike on Ukraine. In June 2023, speaking about the Ukrainian counter-offensive, he stressed that although Russia could technically use nuclear weapons, there was no such need.

Russia accuses the West of nuclear sabre-rattling

The Russian authorities have been accusing Western countries of their readiness to unleash a nuclear war with Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a recent interview that former British Prime Minister Liz Truss declared her readiness to press the red button without hesitation. In turn, Ingo Gerhartz, the Commander of the German Air Force, said that NATO countries should be prepared to use nuclear weapons. He also referred to former Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who said that France also had nuclear weapons.

According to Sergei Lavrov, Western countries are "ready for a nuclear war" and regularly threaten Russia with a "strategic defeat."

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, admitted that a nuclear apocalypse could happen indeed. The current global confrontation is worse than that during the Caribbean crisis, Medvedev believes, as Moscow's adversaries want Russia defeated. In addition, history knows examples of the use of nuclear weapons, so there is no taboo on its use, Medvedev said.