US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, from Ukraine
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who is scheduled to meet in Geneva tomorrow Friday with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, today asked President Vladimir Putin from Kiev to opt for the “peaceful path” to resolve his conflict with Ukraine.
“I strongly hope that we can stay on a peaceful and diplomatic path, but ultimately this is a decision of President Putin,” Blinken said during a visit to the Ukrainian capital. In his words, if the head of the Kremlin chose the military path, he would enter a path “of confrontation that would have consequences for Russia.”
In relation to the military device that Russia has deployed along the Ukrainian border, the head of US Diplomacy stated that “we know that there are plans under way to increase that contingent in a very short time and that gives President Putin the ability, in the short term, term, to launch more aggressive actions against Ukraine’.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that “we are at a stage where Russia could at any time launch an attack on Ukraine.” He also assured that, in such a case, the US “does not rule out any option” to deal with such a possibility, warning at the same time that “the situation is extremely dangerous.”
The Russian embassy in Washington responded with a statement noting that “on January 18, senior officials from the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon announced in unison the absence of de-escalation measures on the Russian-Ukrainian border and argued that our country could invade the neighboring country at any time, including also the territory of Belarus.
In this regard, continues the note from the Russian diplomatic legation, “we reiterate once again: Russia is not going to attack anyone. The practice of moving troops on our own soil is our sovereign right. We call for an end to the hysteria and not to increase the tension around the Donbass issue. And most importantly, do not instigate Kiev to commit further provocations.”
“If the United States is truly committed to diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, it should abandon plans to supply new batches of weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It should also use its influence with the Ukrainian authorities to convince them to stop sabotaging the Minsk agreements,” the statement concludes.
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