China has told the United States it wants to see all sides involved in Ukraine remain calm and avoid increasing tension while the United States stressed de-escalation and warned of the security and economic risks from Russian aggression. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken spoke about
Ukraine on a telephone call late on Wednesday. "We call on all parties to stay calm and refrain from doing things that agitate tensions and hype up the crisis," Wang told Blinken,
China's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Russia, which has been building up its forces on Ukraine's borders for months, has demanded NATO pull back troops and weapons from eastern Europe and bar Ukraine, a former Soviet state, from ever joining the alliance.