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China spoke on Wednesday of “deeply disturbing” images after the discovery of corpses in the city of Boutcha in Ukraine, while refusing to incriminate Russia.
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While images of the city liberated from Russian occupation drew widespread condemnation from Moscow and calls for tougher international sanctions, Beijing refrained from blaming its Russian ally.
“The information and images of dead civilians in Boutcha are deeply disturbing,” Chinese diplomatic spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters.
But “any accusation must be based on facts” and one must not “mix the humanitarian situation with politics”, he added.
Russia has denied being behind the Boutcha deaths and accused Kyiv of staging. The United States, for its part, has called for those responsible to be tried in a war crimes trial.
“Before the results of the investigation are released, all parties should exercise restraint and avoid baseless accusations,” Zhao said in response.
Sharing with Russia a strong hostility towards the United States, the Chinese communist regime has so far refrained from condemning the war in Ukraine and describing it as an invasion.
Beijing was content to call on all parties “to exercise the utmost restraint”, while urging Westerners to respect “reasonable concerns of Russia for its security”.