White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the US does not see China as capable of being an impartial mediator between Moscow and Kyiv over the war in Ukraine, writes The Guardian.

It was the most direct criticism yet of China’s aim to be a middleman in efforts to end the war.

“I don’t think you can reasonably look at China as impartial in any way,” he said.

He noted that China has refrained from criticising the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has continued to buy Russian oil even as the west piles sanctions on Moscow’s energy industry to starve the Kremlin of money to pay for the war.

China, Kirby added, also “keeps parroting the Russian propaganda”.