[ad_1]
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned Moscow of the “serious costs and consequences” of invading Ukraine and called on his Russian counterparts to seek a diplomatic way out of the crisis.
Blinken delivered the warning to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday at what he called an “open” meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. He announced that it was likely that Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin would speak soon.
“I have made it very clear our deep concern and determination to hold Russia accountable for its actions, including our pledge to work with European allies to impose heavy costs and consequences on Russia if it takes further aggressive action against Ukraine,” said Flashing at a press conference after the meeting.
“It is now up to Russia to de-escalate the current tensions by reversing recent troop build-ups, returning troops to normal peace positions and refraining from further intimidation and attempts to destabilize Ukraine.”
Blinken met Lavrov in the Swedish capital [Jonathan Nackstrand/Pool via Reuters]
Al Jazeera’s Rosalind Jordan, reporting from Washington DC, said Blinken’s remarks were “a repetition of the Biden government’s view that Russia is planning to do something shameful to Ukraine.”
“The message we’ve heard from Blinken is that the US just won’t stand for it, but he wouldn’t answer reporters’ questions about whether this would involve some sort of military response.”
Putin-Biden summit
Meanwhile, Interfax, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Lavrov had told Blinken that Moscow would react if Ukraine were drawn into any US “geopolitical games”.
The ministry hopes that a Putin-Biden summit will take place in the coming days, Interfax said.
Blinken said, “I think it is likely that the presidents will speak directly in the near future.”
The Kremlin has been talking about a second summit meeting between the two heads of state and government for weeks. Their most recent took place in Geneva, Switzerland, in June, less than two months after Russia rolled back an earlier buildup of more than 100,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border.
Before speaking with Blinken, Lavrov said that Moscow was ready to enter into dialogue with Kiev.
“We, as President Putin has said, do not want any conflict,” he said.
Ukraine says Russia has rallied more than 90,000 soldiers near their long common border, while Moscow has accused Kiev of conducting its own military buildup.
She dismissed preparations for an attack on Ukraine as inflammatory allusions and defended her right to deploy troops on her own territory at her own discretion.
Refusing to explain what economic sanctions Russia might face in the event of an invasion of its neighbor, Blinken simply said that “Moscow knows very well the universe of what is possible”.
Russia has withstood several rounds of international sanctions since the conquest of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
But Western governments now have a possible new leverage as Moscow awaits German regulatory approval to pump gas through a newly built $ 11 billion pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
Blinken said Moscow and Kiev should each fulfill their obligations under the Minsk peace process, which was supposed to end a war between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces in the east of the former Soviet republic.
Washington is ready to facilitate this, Blinken said, but “if Russia decides to continue the confrontation, the consequences will be dire”.
The Kremlin said on Thursday – before the Lavrov Blinken meeting – that the likelihood of a new conflict in eastern Ukraine was still high and that Moscow was concerned about “aggressive” rhetoric from Kiev and an increase in so-called provocative actions in the sense of Contacts between government troops and pro-Russian separatists.
“Propaganda Nonsense”
Kiev has denied any intention to forcibly retake the rebel regions and has accused Russia of spreading “propaganda nonsense” to hide its own aggressive intentions.
Russia separately said it had arrested three suspected Ukrainian intelligence agents, including one accused of planning an attack using two homemade bombs, allegations that Kiev dismissed as fabricated.
The Ukrainian president said last week that Kiev had foiled a Russian-backed coup attempt that the Kremlin had denied.
East-West relations have sunk to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin accidentally underlined this when he said on a visit to South Korea: “The best case … is that we do not see the Soviet Union invade Ukraine.”
A pro-Russian man (not seen) holds a Russian flag behind an armed soldier on a Russian army vehicle in front of a Ukrainian border post in the Crimean town of Balaclava [Baz Ratner/Reuters]
Ukraine’s leaning towards the West since the ousting of a pro-Russian president in 2014 has enraged Moscow, which says it will not accept NATO membership for Ukraine or the stationing of NATO missiles there that could threaten it.
Putin said this week that Russia would be ready with a newly tested hypersonic weapon of its own if the West deploys missiles in Ukraine that could hit Moscow in a matter of minutes.
Speaking to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on Thursday, Lavrov said military tensions on the continent would increase and he hoped Russia’s proposals for a new European security pact would be carefully considered.
“The architecture of strategic stability is quickly being destroyed, NATO refuses to constructively examine our proposals to de-escalate tensions and avoid dangerous incidents,” Lavrov said.
“On the contrary, the military infrastructure of the alliance is moving closer to the borders of Russia. The nightmare scenario of the military confrontation is returning. “
[ad_2]
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/2/blinken-warns-russias-lavrov-of-severe-consequences-on-ukraine
