China indicated on March 14 that it would not provide arms to Russia for use in Ukraine.
U.S. News reports that United States officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told news outlets over the weekend that Russia had requested for China to provide military assistance — an apparent attempt to capitalize on the two countries’ increasingly cordial relations in recent months.
The White House and other federal agencies have refused to comment publicly on the reports or provide additional details about Russia’s request, which came as its troops in the former Soviet country face entrenched conflict and limited resources.
“We are communicating directly, privately to Beijing that there will absolutely be consequences for large-scale sanctions evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill them,” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. “We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in the world.”
When asked about the Russian petition over the weekend, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., said, “I’ve never heard of that.” He told U.S. News that the “top priority now is to prevent the tense situation from worsening or perhaps getting out of hand.”
However, China’s authorities have refused to condemn Putin for invading Ukraine and have spoken out against Western economic penalties. According to Fox News, the country has voted no on several U.N. resolutions condemning Russia.
Previously, China hesitated to denounce Russia’s attack on Ukraine, instead encouraging “all parties” to exercise patience and criticizing the U.S. for “hyping” the recent threat of conflict in Eastern Europe, Bloomberg reports.
According to Bloomberg, China and Russia have developed a solid economic and trade partnership bolstered by China’s growing demand for oil, food, and other items. Last year, energy accounted for two-thirds of Chinese imports from Russia, a figure that was expected to rise after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Beijing’s gas and oil supply agreements.
“To provide arms now with everyone watching is quite unthinkable,” Sun Yun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center think tank, told U.S. News.
Also on the morning of March 14, entrepreneur and business magnate Elon Musk took to Twitter, itching for a fight.
“I hereby challenge Владимир Путин (Putin) to single combat Stakes are Україна (Ukraine),” Musk tweeted.
Musk, 50, is 19 years younger than Putin and stands roughly six inches taller than the Russian President.
Putin is a trained martial artist with a black belt in judo, MSN News reports. However, in Episode #1609 of the Joe Rogan Experience, Musk said that he has studied many different versions of Martial Arts.
MSN also reported that Musk followed his challenge with another tweet reading, “Do you agree to this fight? @KremlinRussia_E.”
Dmitry Rogozin, director general of Roscosmos, Russia’s space program, responded to Musk with a line from Alexander Pushkin’s The Tale of the Priest and His Workman Balda.
“You, little devil, are still young,” Rogozin said. “You are weak to compete with me; it would only be a waste of time. Overtake my brother first.”
According to Forbes, Musk responded to the tweet saying he was serious about the fight, commenting that, though he thought Putin would not meet him in a dual, it “would be an honor” if he did.
Both Musk’s challenge and China’s decision to so far deny Russia military aid come shortly after a Russian rocket attack that killed nearly three dozen people in Ukraine, just four miles from the border of NATO member country Poland.
After Russia threatened to target international weapon shipments that assist Ukrainian fighters in defending their country, Russian missiles slammed a Ukrainian military training center on March 13. The blast killed thirty-five people, according to CBS News.
Up until then, Lviv, a major Ukrainian city near the country’s western border, had been largely spared from the carnage unfolding farther east. Since Russia’s invasion began two weeks ago, the city had become a destination for inhabitants fleeing more heavily battered areas and many of the near-2.6-million refugees fleeing the country.
“What it shows is that Vladimir Putin is frustrated by the fact that his forces are not making the kind of progress that he thought that they would make against major cities including Kyiv, that he is expanding the number of targets, that he is lashing out, and that he is trying to cause damage in every part of the country,” National Security Advisor Sullivan said.