Diplomatic efforts between the West and Russia over the Ukraine crisis have not worked. On Saturday, the Kremlin denounced Washington’s “hysteria”, while US President Joe Biden threatened his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, with “severe and swift consequences” if he attacks the neighboring country.
Washington insisted on Friday the risk of an “imminent” invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which has concentrated more than 100,000 troops near the border and has just begun military maneuvers in the Black Sea and Belarus, cornering the country.
Such an invasion would have “quick and severe” consequences for Russia, Biden warned Saturday in a phone call with Putin.
“Hysteria has reached a peak,” said Vladimir Putin’s diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov, adding that the two presidents had agreed to “continue contacts at all levels.”
For his part, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, warned after his meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that Moscow is looking for a “provocation” as a pretext to start the war.
“No one should be surprised if Russia triggers a provocation or an incident that they will use to justify a military action they have planned all along,” warned Blinken.
In a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Putin criticized “large-scale deliveries of modern weapons” to Kiev, saying they were creating “conditions for possible aggressive actions by Ukrainian forces” in the east of the country, where the Kremlin supports pro-professional separatists. -Russia for eight years.
– Keep calm –
The list of countries asking for their citizens to leave Ukraine continues to grow, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada, Norway, Australia, Japan and Israel.
The Dutch airline KLM has suspended its flights to Ukraine for an unlimited time.
Moscow also withdrew some of its diplomatic staff from the country, saying it feared “provocations”.
Washington has ordered the departure of most embassy personnel in Kiev. The Russian offensive could “begin at any time and without warning”, they justified.
Canada and Australia have temporarily moved their embassy to Lviv in western Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again called US comments too alarmist. “All this information causes panic and doesn’t help us,” he said.
Thousands of protesters protested in Kiev, saying they refused to panic even though they feared the risk of an invasion.
– Submarine –
In another sign of escalation, Russia on Saturday launched new naval maneuvers in the Black Sea for the “defense” of Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014.
The Russian Ministry of Defense highlighted that its Navy had expelled an American submarine from its waters in the Pacific Ocean.
“There is no truth to the Russian version of our operations in its territorial waters,” the US military retorted.
The West has ruled out the possibility of involving its military in the war, but has planned devastating economic retaliation.
The White House has outlined the scenario for the Russian offensive with “air and missile strikes” and a possible attack on the capital Kiev.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz travels to Kiev on Monday and to Moscow on Tuesday.
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