China must be mindful of stakes in Ukraine war, says Canada's deputy PM

OTTAWA (Reuters) - China needs to be mindful of the stakes in the Ukraine war and that Russian President Vladimir Putin is on the "wrong side of history," Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Monday, as Chinese President Xi Jinping met Putin in Moscow.

"Putin's invasion of Ukraine is the strongest challenge in a generation to the rules-based international order ... I'm not going to anticipate what President Xi will say or do in Moscow, but China and China's leadership needs to understand the stakes here," Freeland told reporters in Oshawa, Ontario.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Editing by Chris Reese)