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CHINA China warns US against labelling Russia a terrorist state

WASHINGTON should promote dialogue for a peaceful settlement to the war in Ukraine, China said today, warning against labelling Russia a terrorist state. 

“The US should create favourable conditions to advance Russian-Ukrainian peace talks.

“Washington should take steps to facilitate a political settlement to the crisis in Ukraine,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a press conference. 

He said that a peace deal is the only way to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine and bring an end to six months of conflict. 

“Washington should take more steps which will positively impact a political settlement,” he said. 

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi urged hawkish US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a phone call today to label Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. 

She reportedly told him that if the State Department refused to do so then the legislative branch of the US government would. 

The pair deliberated over the issue last week, according to the Politico media outlet. 

Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov poured scorn on the proposal. 

“However, on the other hand, it is very difficult to do something that can make relations between Russia and the US even worse,” he said. 

Washington remains resolutely opposed to a peace deal with Russia while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that now is not the time for negotiations. 

He insists that meaningful talks can only take place once Russian troops have left Ukrainian territory, including Crimea which was annexed by Moscow in 2014. 

Russia will be reluctant to pull back troops from the eastern Donbass region, fearing a massacre of Russian-speakers there. 

Some 14,000 have been killed there since the US-backed 2014 Maidan coup. 

Tensions have escalated once more with Ukraine accusing Russia of “barbarism” after a missile strike on the port of Odessa just hours after a deal was struck to allow the movement of grain.

Moscow says it destroyed a vessel laden with US supplied Harpoon missiles and today claimed it would not affect the Istanbul agreement. 

“This [the strike] is related solely to the military infrastructure. This has nothing to do with the infrastructure involved in fulfilling the accords and grain shipments. 

“That is why, this cannot and will not affect the start of the shipment process,” Mr Peskov said.

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