China has privately warned the European Union that it cannot allow Russia to lose the Ukraine war, according to an official briefed on the meeting. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made this clear during a four-hour talk with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas in Brussels.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi reportedly told the EU that Beijing views a Russian defeat in Ukraine as unacceptable, fearing it would allow the US to concentrate on China. Despite China's official neutrality,

China cannot afford for Russia to lose the war in Ukraine, Beijing’s foreign minister has said, in unguarded comments to European officials.