Responding to Chinese 'joke', Kremlin says United States is 'invisible hand' in Ukraine

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the United States was driving the Ukraine conflict, saying China's foreign minister was joking when he said an "invisible hand" was to blame.

"Here we can probably disagree with our Chinese comrades. This is of course a joke. You know what the joke is: this is not an invisible hand, this is the hand of the United States of America, this is the hand of Washington," Peskov told reporters.

"Washington does not want this war to end. Washington wants and is doing everything to continue this war. This is the visible hand."

Moscow has repeatedly declared that the United States and its allies are using Ukraine to wage war against it. That narrative is rejected by Kyiv and the West, which say Ukraine is fighting for survival against an imperial land grab by Russia.

Referring to a Chinese ceasefire initiative, Peskov said Moscow was in constant contact with Beijing and it was natural for such a "powerful and authoritative" country to have a voice on world problems.

China's foreign minister Qin Gang said earlier that the Ukraine crisis seemed to be driven by an invisible hand pushing for the protraction and escalation of the conflict.