In an interview with the Russian state news agency TASS, the Chinese ambassador to Moscow criticizes the US for backing NATO expansion and imposing sanctions on Russia.

The Chinese ambassador has called the United States the “main instigator” of the war in Ukraine and accused Washington of seeking to “crush” Russia.

Ambassador Zhang Hanhui said the US backed Russia into a corner with repeated expansions of the NATO defense alliance and support for forces seeking to align Ukraine with the European Union rather than Moscow.

Zhang also railed against US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit last week to self-governing Taiwan, which China claims as its own, and said the US was trying to apply the same tactics in Ukraine and Taiwan to “revive a Cold War mentality, contain China and Russia, and provoke major power rivalry and confrontation”.