Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Monday that the visit to Moscow by China s president days after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir V. Putin amounts to Beijing providing diplomatic cover for Russia to commit war crimes.
President Xi Jinping's visit shows that China feels no responsibility to hold the president accountable for the crimes committed in Ukraine, Mr. Blinken said of Mr. Putin.
Mr. Blinken made a comment on the role China has tried to take in the war, by offering a vague plan for peace talks that Kyiv and its Western allies have brushed off. He warned against any attempts to settle the conflict that could lead to an unjust outcome or give Russia a tactical advantage in the fighting.
A briefing by Mr. Blinken in Washington was to mark the publication of the State Department's annual report on global human rights, which harshly condemned Russian forces for a litany of atrocities in Ukraine, including credible reports of summary execution, torture, rape and indiscriminate attacks, including ones targeting civilians.