Beijing Guomao Business District. File photoBEIJING, Apr 6 The US must stop adding fuel to the fire and imposing sanctions if it really wants to help de-escalate Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing on Wednesday. «If The US really wants to contribute to the de-escalation of the situation in Ukraine, they should stop adding fuel to the fire, stop brandishing the sanctions baton and really promote peace negotiations,» the diplomat said. jpg» />China cannot influence the situation in Ukraine, said the Chinese Foreign MinistryWestern countries have imposed tough sanctions against the Russian Federation due to a special operation to demilitarize Ukraine. In early March, the European Union decided to disconnect seven Russian banks from the SWIFT system: these are VTB, Rossiya and Otkritie banks, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank, and the state corporation VEB.RF. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov estimated that Western countries, as part of sanctions over Ukraine, have frozen about half, or about $300 billion, of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves. Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the “collective West”, by freezing Russian assets, actually drew a line under the reliability of their currencies, crossed out their trust. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
