This is the Guardian.

Today, where does China stand on Russia?

And what could it do to end the war in Ukraine?

Chinese reporter Liu Yingwang is embedded with a Russian army, reporting from the bombardment of Marriapul.

It's a striking image. He stood in rubble, dressed in a helmet and a flat jacket, the only foreign journalist on the front line with exclusive access to the Russian side of the fighting.

A Chinese reporter's very presence in the midst of Russian troops and his rare level of access has prompted questions about the nature of China's relationship with Russia.

China has always said that we believe in non-interference in other countries' affairs that we believe in sovereignty.

The Guardian's Tanya Branigan has been closely following the developments, but at the moment it seems to see its strategic and political interests as being aligned much more clearly with Russia's.

On Friday, in a two-hour phone call, US President Joe Biden warned Xi Jinping that China would face heavy consequences if Beijing backed Russia's war.

China is insisting that China would pay a price and that that was President Biden's message to President Xi yesterday on this call.

And in a statement over the weekend, Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged China to be on the right side of history in what he called a battle between good and evil.

As the world watches on in horror, desperately hoping for peace, could Chinese President Xi Jinping be the foreign leader uniquely positioned to influence President Vladimir Putin?

From the Guardian, I'm not sheenik Baal, today in focus.

Can China broker an end to Russia's war in Ukraine?

Tanya Branigan, your guardian leader writer and former Beijing correspondent.

Can I ask you, first of all, could you give me a mini history lesson on how Russia and China's relationship has developed and changed over the years?

Well, like most neighbors, it's been a sort of hot and cold relationship over the years.

So they've actually had sort of trade agreements going back to the late 17th century.

But then in the 19th century, as the Qing Empire started to get carved up by foreign powers, Britain notably.

Russia was one of those that went in, that was annexing territory, that was imposing these terribly unfair trade arrangements and so forth.

So that was pretty much a low.

Then of course, the communists come to power in the Soviet Union and we see the communists first emerging in China.

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