The Russian invasion of Ukraine is “still perfectly possible,” US President Joe Biden said in a stern tone on Tuesday. The president has appeared at the White House to react to the latest news about the global crisis unleashed by the military deployment ordered by Moscow on the border between the two countries. “We have not been able to verify the veracity of the announcement [de las últimas horas] of the beginning of a withdrawal of the troops deployed [por Moscú] on the border between the two countries”, he added, to refer to a contingent that he has estimated “at 150,000 soldiers”, a figure slightly higher than the one that had been considered.
“The West is prepared for what may happen,” he warned in a 10-minute appearance called after a telephone conversation with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron. “We continue to bet on diplomacy,” Biden said, “but we will not sacrifice basic principles: countries have the right to define their borders and no neighbor can change them on a whim.”
Biden’s speech came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the “partial withdrawal of troops” and seemed destined to be heard also (and especially) in Moscow. This has been made clear when Biden has ruled that “the United States is not a threat to Russia.” “Ukraine is not either. To the citizens of Russia I say: ‘We are not your enemies’, he added before recalling that “77 years ago” both countries fought together in World War II. “That was a war of necessity. If Russia launches an attack on Ukraine it will be a war of choice. I’m not saying this to provoke, but to be frank.”
Biden has also reiterated his “commitment to diplomacy”, which he shared, as he explained, with Putin in the phone call between the two last Saturday to discuss the crisis. “The human cost for Ukraine [de una posible invasión] it will be huge. And the world will not forget that Russia chose death and destruction. The West is united at this moment, ”she has assured.
The American leader has once again threatened “powerful sanctions” from the United States “and its allies” if Moscow decides to launch a military operation. He has also stressed that, in this case, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would supply Russian gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine, will not be put into operation.
As proof that they will not terminate the threat until they can verify that the Russian withdrawal is effective, he recalled that the United States closed its embassy in Kiev on Monday, and that it moved the diplomatic mission to Lviv, near the border with Poland. , member of NATO. “The United States”, she has asserted, “will defend any country of the Atlantic Alliance with all the means at its disposal. The attack on any NATO country is an attack on all of its members.”
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
subscribe
In the morning, Biden and Macron had a phone call in which they defined Moscow’s announcement that it was going to start withdrawing the Russian troops stationed for months along the border with Ukraine as an “encouraging sign”. In the appearance at the White House, Biden has reiterated his commitment to diplomacy. Both have agreed on the need to be “cautious” and, above all, have highlighted the importance of “verifying” Russian statements in a situation that remains very “fragile”, as announced by the Elysee.
“The challenge today is to evaluate the quality of the Russian announcements about the end of certain military maneuvers,” sources from the French presidency explained after the new telephone interview of the leaders, who had last spoken last Saturday. The frequent talks – four since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis – are due to the will of Washington and Paris to continue “perfectly coordinated” with Moscow. Both Biden and Macron have agreed that “the Russian measures must be taken note of” but that “they must also be verified, their scope and meaning verified,” according to the French presidency.
“There are Russian announcements, there are images of a certain number of men and material on board, but there are still large-scale Russian air, naval and land military maneuvers. The maneuvers have not ended (…) there is an indication, but the Russian military device is still very impressive and for confidence and calm to return, it must be clearly reduced, ”insists Paris. “Many things are possible” even in a situation that is still very “fragile”.
The Elysee considers that the promise of troop withdrawal after the conclusion of the alleged military exercises to deploy them along the Ukrainian border comes to reaffirm Macron’s strategy a little more than a week after his visit to Putin in the Kremlin , despite the “prudence” with which the two parties stress that any Russian announcement must be taken. Something especially important for the French president —especially two months before the presidential elections— after the Kremlin categorically denied the Elysée’s claims that Macron had managed to extract from Putin the promise that Russia “will not undertake new military initiatives”.
“The de-escalation movement is in accordance” with what Putin told Macron a week ago, the French sources affirmed, according to whom the fundamental thing is to have a “starting point”.
“We are looking for a way out of the crisis and for this we have to start somewhere. A good starting point is the reduction of the Russian military device on the borders of Ukraine (…) We do not draw any more conclusions, it is not to say that what has been announced is the way out of the crisis, that must be built and it will be gradual, ”the Elysée nuanced. . The objective, he recalled, remains, in addition to the Russian de-escalation on the Ukrainian border, “to relaunch the negotiations in the framework of the Normandy format” on Donbas and open a “more ambitious” discussion to other partners regarding security in Europe.
Paris announced that Macron will also talk this Wednesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Although China is not currently part of the negotiations, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council it has “a particular responsibility in terms of maintaining international peace and security”, France justifies the imminent interview, in which Macron will communicate to his Chinese counterpart “the common interest in getting Russia to enter into a useful dialogue” with France and its allies.
That of Macron and Biden has not been the only telephone communication between the two powers. The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony J. Blinken, also spoke on Tuesday with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, to reiterate Washington’s commitment to continue seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis. Blinken has also told Lavrov, according to a statement from the State Department, that the United States expects to receive Russia’s written response to the documents that the United States and NATO shared with Moscow last month, the content of which was revealed by EL PAÍS. In them, they refused to sign a bilateral treaty on security in Europe with Russia and also to close the door to a future incorporation of Ukraine into the Atlantic Alliance. They did offer Putin to negotiate disarmament agreements and confidence measures in different forums (such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, the US-Russia Strategic Stability Dialogue and the NATO-Russia Council), as long as there is a prior de-escalation of the tension.
Follow all the international information in Facebook Y Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.
#Biden #considers #Russian #invasion #Ukraine #perfectly