Photo: AFP / Scanpix / LETA
13:12, January 19, 2022
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US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Kiev on Wednesday for crisis talks with Ukrainian leaders in a diplomatic effort to persuade Russia to de-escalate the situation around Ukraine without success.
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“It simply came to our notice then [situāciju] we can keep on the path of diplomacy and peace, but it will eventually be [Krievijas] president [Vladimira] Putin’s decision, “Blinken told the U.S. embassy in Kiev on Wednesday.
If Putin does not stick to diplomacy, Blinken warned, he would “choose confrontation and consistency for Russia.”
Blinken expressed concern that the concentration of Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders was far from over.
“We know there are plans to increase these forces in the very short term, and this will give President Putin the capacity, even in the very short term, to take further aggressive action against Ukraine,” he said.
Belarus said on Tuesday that Russian troops were coming to the country for maneuvers, as explained by the Minsk regime.
Russia is acting “unprovoked, for no reason,” Blinken said.
Russia is trying to “challenge the basic principles that sustain the entire international system and are necessary to maintain peace and security, the principles that one country cannot change the borders of another by force,” Blinken said.
“If we allow these principles to be violated with impunity, then we are opening a very large Pandora’s box. The whole world is watching what is happening here, ”he emphasized.
Negotiations between the West and Russia last week failed to allay concerns, and the White House warned on Tuesday that Russia could attack Ukraine “at any time”.
On Thursday, Blinken will travel to Berlin, where he is scheduled to talk to representatives of Germany, France and Britain in an effort to strengthen Western unity.
On Friday, the US senior diplomat in Geneva is scheduled to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The US Secretary of State paid a one-day visit to Kiev to show, among other things, strong support for Ukraine ahead of talks with Lavrov.
As White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday, “we are now at a stage where Russia can attack Ukraine at any time.”
“No version is off the agenda,” she said, warning of a “very dangerous situation.”
Psaki also stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “created this crisis”.
Russia has concentrated a troop of 100,000 men on Ukraine’s borders, raising concerns about a new invasion of a neighboring country.
In December, Moscow issued an ultimatum to the West demanding a halt to NATO’s further expansion to the east and the dismantling of the Alliance’s infrastructure in the so-called new member states, restoring the status quo on 27 May 1997, before NATO’s first enlargement.
Putin has threatened that if Moscow does not receive the “security guarantees” it has requested, it will have to implement “military technical measures”.
The United States and other NATO members have stated that these demands are unacceptable and not even negotiable, but have shown readiness to talk about arms control, missile deployment and confidence-building measures.
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