ISTANBUL

As Chinese President Xi Jinping began his official visit to Russia, Beijing on Monday blamed the US for “fanning” the Russia-Ukraine war.

“It is not China that supplies weapons to the battlefield of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but the US,” Wang Wenbin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a news conference in Beijing.

Xi landed in Moscow on an official visit from Monday until Wednesday, marking his first overseas trip since being reelected as president for a third term early this month.

Wang was responding to US-sourced reports that alleged “rounds of Chinese ammunition” were used in battlefields on Ukraine.

Japan’s Kyodo News claimed over the past weekend that the US “suspects” the Chinese ammunition rounds “were fired by Russian forces.”

“Whether the ammunition was supplied by China remains unclear,” Kyodo quoted US administration sources.

“It’s something that we are vigilant about and continuing to watch carefully,” an unnamed US State Department official told Kyodo.

“The US should stop fanning the flames and pointing fingers and end coercion toward other countries. The US should play a constructive role on the Ukraine crisis, not the other way around,” Wang was quoted as saying by daily Global Times.

On the arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin issued by the International Criminal Court, he said: "The International Criminal Court should maintain an objective stance, respect the immunity of heads of state from jurisdiction under international law and avoid double standards."

The ICC on Friday said its Pre-Trial Chamber II issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, presidential commissioner for children's rights, in the "context of the situation in Ukraine."