China Calls for Sustainable European Security Mechanism, Xi Says

The Chinese President stressed that it was necessary to abandon the Cold War mentality and to take into account and respect the legitimate security concerns of countries

BEIJING, February 25. /TASS/. China advocates to completely abandon the Cold War mentality surrounding the Ukrainian issue, as well as forming a balanced and effective mechanism for ensuring European security, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

"It is necessary to abandon the Cold War mentality, to take into account and respect the legitimate security concerns of countries, and to form, through negotiations, a balanced, effective and sustainable mechanism [for ensuring] European security," China Central Television cites him as saying.

"Lately, the situation in eastern Ukraine has drastically changed and attracts increased attention of the international community," the Chinese president added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on Thursday morning that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Right after that, Washington, the EU, London as well as a number of other states announced that they were imposing sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities.