U.S. Warns China against Supplying Arms to Russia in Ukraine War

Secretary of State Blinken says Beijing is considering providing lethal support to Moscow for the conflict, as bitter fighting continues

U.S. officials are warning China against supplying Russia with arms and ammunition, as Moscow struggles to gain ground in Ukraine despite deploying almost the entirety of its ground forces in its smaller neighbor.

Concerns that China was considering providing lethal assistance to Russia first surfaced in meetings between officials late last year and early this year, officials said. U.S. officials put their Chinese counterparts on notice in videoconferences and at in-person meetings that China is “nearing a red line” in assisting Russia’s war, the officials said.

With the war approaching the one-year mark, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said publicly this weekend that Washington had information that Beijing was weighing providing lethal support to Moscow, primarily in the form of weapons.

“We’ve made very clear to them that that would cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship,” Mr. Blinken told CBS News in an interview after meeting Saturday with China’s top foreign-policy official, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

“If there are any thoughts and efforts by the Chinese and others to provide lethal support to the Russians in their brutal attack against Ukraine, that is unacceptable,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told CNN on Sunday.

The new concerns are being aired as President Biden travels to Poland this week to rally European allies, while Mr. Wang is scheduled to arrive in Moscow on Monday for talks. Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to deliver a major address to Russia’s Federal Council on Tuesday.

“The most catastrophic thing that could happen to U.S.-China relationship, in my opinion, is for China…to start to give lethal weapons to Putin in this crime against humanity,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on ABC News on Sunday. He said China providing lethal aid “would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you saw the movie.”

Beijing has called for a negotiated settlement in Ukraine. At the same time, China has provided crucial economic and diplomatic support for Moscow, buying up Russian energy and accusing the U.S. and NATO of creating conditions that provoked Russia’s invasion.

Beijing has denied it is aiding the Russian war effort and said its companies conduct normal trade with Russia.

Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday the U.S. has formally determined that Russian forces and officials have committed crimes against humanity.

Tensions between Beijing and Washington have increased in recent weeks after the U.S. shot down what it said was a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S. At the Munich conference, Mr. Wang criticized what he called the “nearly hysterical” reaction of Washington to the balloon.

China is already providing technology that Moscow needs despite sanctions and export controls, according to a recent Wall Street Journal review of Russian customs data. The customs records show Chinese state-owned defense companies providing goods that have civilian and military uses, shipping navigation equipment, jamming technology and jet-fighter parts to sanctioned Russian government-owned defense companies.

Russia has also continued to purchase and deploy commercially available Chinese drones to target Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.

On the ground in Ukraine, the war has intensified in recent weeks as Russia hastens to capture the remainder of the eastern Donbas region before Kyiv receives better and heavier weapons pledged by its Western allies. Ukraine is bracing for a possible further escalation in fighting in the run-up to the first anniversary of the invasion later this week.

Ukrainian forces said they repelled Russian attacks along the front line in the east of the country, as Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Sunday, including around the city of Bakhmut, which has become an epicenter of the war in recent months.

The war has come at a huge cost. Russian armed forces and private military contractors fighting alongside them have lost 40,000 to 60,000 troops and suffered up to 200,000 casualties, which includes troops killed or wounded in action, the U.K. has said.

Ukraine doesn’t disclose figures for its dead and wounded, though Western officials have estimated some 100,000 casualties among Ukrainian troops.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday it had captured the village of Hryanykivka in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region. Ukraine said Sunday its forces had repelled an attack in the vicinity of the village.

The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces had pushed back an attack on the eastern city of Bakhmut and the nearby villages of Ivanivske and Chasiv Yar, as Moscow’s forces push to encircle the city after months of failed assaults.

The Russian paramilitary Wagner Group said it had seized the village of Paraskoviivka on the northern edge of Bakhmut on Friday. While Ukraine hasn’t confirmed that, the General Staff on Sunday said it had foiled a Russian attack on the nearby village of Berkhivka, suggesting that Paraskoviivka was no longer under its control.

Kyiv’s Western allies are rushing to equip Ukrainian forces with the means to prevent Russia from making further inroads now while building up for a counteroffensive in the coming months. Ukrainian officials have vowed to retake all of the territory occupied by Russian forces, though some Western officials and analysts say that goal is unrealistic.

While Kyiv has recently lobbied the West for tanks and jet fighters, the immediate priority is ammunition, which Ukraine is burning through faster than its allies can supply.

The European Union is exploring ways for member countries to team up to buy munitions for Ukraine.

“These are not normal times; these are extraordinary times. And therefore, we should also look at extraordinary measures or procedures,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told reporters at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

Ahead of the war’s anniversary, Lt. Gen. Serhiy Nayev, commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, played down concerns about a renewed Russian thrust from neighboring Belarus, which served as a staging ground for the initial invasion last year.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko last week said he would allow Russia to use the country as a springboard for further attacks on Ukraine, but that Belarus would only send troops of its own if it was attacked. The two countries launched a series of joint military exercises along the border last month.

“These forces are not sufficient for a ground offensive at the moment, but what may happen in the future depends on the intentions of the enemy,” Lt. Gen. Nayev said.

“We have created a system of engineering barriers, in particular mine-explosive barriers, increasing their amount along the state border. We have created a system of defensive lines and positions,” he said.