Kazakh leader urges Scholz to support China's peace plan for Ukraine

ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev urged visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday to give up on the idea that Russia can be defeated on the battlefield and to support China's peace plan for Ukraine, a suggestion Scholz rejected.

Scholz is on his first official tour of Central Asia as Berlin looks for new sources of energy and minerals in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Kazakhstan remains a close ally of its former Soviet overlord Russia, though the Astana government has not taken sides in the conflict or supported Moscow's claims to some Ukrainian territories.

"It is a fact that Russia cannot be defeated in the military sense," Tokayev told Scholz in Astana.

"A further escalation of war will lead to irreparable consequences for the whole of humanity and above all for the countries involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict," he added.

Scholz diplomatically disagreed, saying Germany was supporting Ukraine because Russia had invaded it.

"That is the case and will remain so, so that the country can defend itself and protect its integrity and sovereignty," he said."

"It is also clear to us that, at the same time, it remains necessary to continue to explore opportunities to open up peaceful development."

Scholz said the Western-backed peace conference in Switzerland needed to be followed up by another one which would include Russia.

"And it is clear to me that it will not work the way Russia is currently pushing ahead with everything, pushing ahead with the war, continuing to attack Ukraine with great aggression," he said.

"And that is why this is something that must never be ignored in everything we discuss. It is Russia that has not only started the war, but is continuing it and could contribute to ending it at any time by stopping its aggression."

(Reporting by Andres Rinke; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Andrew Heavens)