Western intelligence report indicated that Chinese officials in early February requested that senior Russian officials wait until after the Beijing Olympics had finished before beginning an invasion into Ukraine, US officials said Wednesday.
A firework display is seen during the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Beijing National Stadium on February 4, 2022, in Beijing, China.
© David Ramos/Getty Images
A firework display is seen during the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Beijing National Stadium on February 4, 2022, in Beijing, China.
US officials broadly view the report as credible, but its particulars are open to interpretation, according to one source familiar with the intelligence. Although the request was made around the time that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Olympics -- where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping -- it is not clear from the report whether Putin addressed the matter with Xi directly, the source said.
The New York Times first reported the existence of the report.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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Halafi Mengedi
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