Russia assured this Wednesday that Europe there will be no full-scale war and denied plans to “attack or invade” Ukraine, despite the accumulation of troops near the border with the neighboring country.
(In context: Blinken urges Putin to choose a ‘peaceful path’ in the crisis with Ukraine)
“I am convinced that there is no risk of a large-scale war in Europe or anywhere else in the world. We are not going to take aggressive measures. We are not going to attack or invade Ukraine,” said the Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Riabkov. Riabkov called on the West not to worry about the new Russian-Belarussian maneuvers and “concentrate on the path of diplomacy.”
Washington described the day before as “worrying” the joint military exercises of
Russia and Belarus, to be held between February 10 and 20, amid fears of a hypothetical Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I am continually repeating that we are open to dialogue, that we are for a political solution. And I repeat it again,” Riabkov stressed when speaking at the Valdái debate club. The Russian diplomat insisted that Moscow does “nothing that threatens Ukraine.”
“We are just carrying out maneuvers and moving troops on our own territory. And it is something that we will continue to do,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by the Tass agency. The Russian deputy minister recalled that Moscow hopes to receive binding guarantees from the US and NATO that the expansion of the Atlantic Alliance will not continue.
(In other news: Russia can launch attack on Ukraine ‘at any time’: US)
Riabkov added that Russia will continue to do “everything possible” to prevent Ukraine’s integration into NATO “through diplomatic means.”
“We see a threat in Ukraine’s further integration into NATO even without acquiring the status of a member,” he said, adding that Moscow will do everything to “reverse this situation” with the help of diplomacy.
He explained that the Russian proposals presented to the Atlantic Alliance and the US they are precisely “the path to take” for a diplomatic solution to the situation.
The Kremlin assured on Tuesday that the cause of the tension around Ukraine is the arms supplies to this country and NATO’s military maneuvers in the region.
“The situation is really very tense. We see that weapons are being sent and maneuvers are being carried out, including aviation from NATO and other Western countries,” said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov.
Peskov trusted that the United States and the Atlantic Alliance will respond “in the next few days” to the demands for security guarantees in Europe that Moscow demands.
Last week the demands, which Russia announced last November, were addressed during three rounds of consultations with the US, NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
This Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, specified that Moscow awaits a written response to its demands “to continue the negotiations.”
Tensions over Ukraine will be the main topic of discussion at a meeting in Geneva on Friday between Lavrov and his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, who is in Ukraine today.
EFE
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