CHINA called today for a ceasefire between Ukrainian and Russian forces and the opening of peace talks, setting out a 12-point proposal to end the fighting that started one year ago and to reinforce its claim to neutrality in the conflict.

The plan issued by China’s Foreign Ministry also urges the lifting of Western sanctions imposed on Russia and includes measures to keep nuclear facilities safe, establish humanitarian corridors for civilians and ensure the export of grain after disruptions inflated global food prices.

The plan says that all countries’ “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity” must be guaranteed and repeats China’s position that “nuclear weapons cannot be used and nuclear war cannot be fought.

“Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way out to resolve the Ukraine crisis,” the proposal said.

The plan offers no details on what form talks should take, but it says: “China is willing to continue to play a constructive role in this regard.”

It also called an end to the “cold war mentality” of the United States and Washington’s interference in other countries’ affairs.

“A country’s security cannot be at the expense of other countries’ security and regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs,” the document says.

On Thursday, China abstained in voting on a non-binding United Nations general assembly resolution calling for Russia to end hostilities and withdraw its forces from Ukraine.

Kiev gave China’s plan a cautious welcome.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “China has shown its thoughts. I believe that the fact that China started talking about Ukraine is not bad.

“But the question is what follows the words. The question is in the steps and where they will lead to,” he told a news conference on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, adding that there were points in the Chinese proposals that he agreed with “and there are those that we don’t.”

There was no immediate official response from Moscow, but  senior Russian legislator Leonid Slutsky said the plan contained proposals that would mark “an end of the hegemony of the collective West.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price voiced scepticism, saying on Thursday that China’s close relationship with Russia meant that it was not  neutral.

But, he added, the US hopes “all countries that have a relationship with Russia unlike the one that we have will use that leverage, will use that influence to push Russia meaningfully and usefully to end this brutal war of aggression.”