The foreign ministers of the EU They did not appreciate this Monday a risk of “imminent attack” on Ukraine by Russia After speaking with the Secretary of State for U.S, Antony Blinken, whose country has begun to withdraw non-essential personnel from its Embassy in Kiev, something that the Europeans are not going to replicate for the moment.
(Read here: US considers increasing military presence in the face of escalation in Ukraine)
“No, I don’t think there is anything new that could increase the feeling of fear about an imminent attack,” said the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, at a press conference at the end of the Council of Community Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which Blinken joined by videoconference.
The European ministers heard from Blinken the results of their latest meetings with Russia, specifically the one last Friday in Geneva with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, and the reasons why the United States has decided to withdraw personnel from its Embassy in Kiev.
“Blinken said that it was not an evacuation, but rather to let people freely move, those who are not crucial personnel,” he said. Borrell, who upon his arrival at the Council ruled out that the EU was going to withdraw personnel from its delegation in the Ukrainian capital.
“I am not saying that preventive measures should not be taken,” he said, but added that “even with that very low level of preventive measures,” referring to the departure of certain diplomatic personnel and their families, “I think there is complete agreement between the Member States” that it is not necessary.
The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, played down the fact that Spain and the EU have not decided to start withdrawing personnel from their embassies in Ukraine, unlike the United Kingdom and the United States, and pointed out that Washington has “some protocols for many years of evacuation” concrete.
The head of community diplomacy highlighted his personal coordination with Blinken before and after the meetings that the American has held in the last two weeks with Russian representatives.
In conclusions approved today, European ministers stressed that European security is “indivisible” and that any challenge to that order affects the EU and its member states.
Today, I spoke with European leaders in response to Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s borders. We discussed our joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression, such as preparations to impose severe economic costs on Russia and reinforce security on the eastern flank. pic.twitter.com/2XvTTvdLJl
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 24, 2022
However, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, decided to impose his alliance and called an emergency call with his European allies that took place on Monday afternoon.
After the meeting, the US president said that there is “complete unanimity” between his position and that of his European allies regarding the concentration of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine.
“I have had a very, very, very good meeting. (There is) total unanimity with all the European leaders,” Biden told reporters at the White House. The president spoke like this, without giving more details, after having a conversation of one hour and twenty minutes with the president of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen; and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, among others, to coordinate the response to the Ukraine crisis.
Also participating in the video call were the President of France, Emmanuel Macron; German Chancellor Olaf Scholz; the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi; the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, and the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, as well as the president of the European Council, Charles Michel.
In a subsequent tweet, Biden said the leaders had discussed “joint efforts to deter further aggression by Russia, such as preparations to impose heavy economic costs on Russia and bolster security on the eastern flank” of NATO.
The White House later added, in a statement, that the participants in the call “underlined their shared desire for a diplomatic resolution of the current tensions”, in addition to “reviewing their recent contacts with Russia in multiple formats”.
The leaders “committed to continue their close consultations with their transatlantic allies and partners, including through the EU (European Union), NATO and the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe),” adds the official note. .
The conversation came after the Pentagon announced that it has placed 8,500 soldiers on “high” alert in the face of heightened tensions with Moscow over
Ukraine, although no decision has yet been made on a deployment to Eastern Europe.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby stressed that the bulk of US troops would be deployed to Eastern European countries as part of the NATO Response Force (NRF), for which they would be activated only if the Atlantic alliance requests it. Kirby explained that it is up to NATO to activate this multinational force, which consists of land, air and sea troops, and has some 40,000 soldiers from different countries.
However, the Pentagon spokesman did not rule out a possible “unilateral” US deployment outside the NRF, although he insisted that in that case it would always be in coordination and after consultation with the allies.
The Atlantic Alliance also announced Monday that it is putting “on alert” and sending additional warships and warplanes to NATO deployments in Eastern Europe, bolstering allied deterrence and defense, as Russia continues its military buildup in and around NATO. from Ukraine.
They invite dialogue, but are willing to sanction
French President Emmanuel Macron stressed on Monday to his Western allies the priority of working on “rapid de-escalation” in the coronavirus crisis.
Ukraine, which in his opinion involves sending “firm and credible” warnings to Russia and at the same time maintaining “a reinforced dialogue” with Moscow.
In a statement, the Elysee indicated that Macron expressed in the videoconference organized by the US president, Joe Biden, his “great concern” about the situation on the borders of Ukraine, in which Russia has concentrated tens of thousands of soldiers, who they have raised the tension in the event of an invasion.
The French head of state insisted to his interlocutors, among whom were the heads of government of Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom, as well as the heads of the European Commission, the European Council and NATO, that we must work “collectively for rapid de-escalation”.
To achieve this, -always according to the Elysee- it is necessary to present “firm and credible warnings to Russia, which require constant coordination between European partners and allies” but also “a reinforced dialogue with Russia that we are carrying out”.
In fact, Macron plans to speak in the coming days with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, because he is determined to “use all the resources of diplomacy to preserve stability in Europe.”
A way to make a certain difference with the alarmist statements of the United Kingdom, which last weekend denounced that Moscow is maneuvering to destabilize the Ukrainian authorities.
In any case, the French president also wanted to “express his solidarity and his willingness to help the States of the European Union concerned about their security.”
A gesture in the direction of the countries of the east of the EU, concerned about the possibility that an armed conflict in Ukraine would end up affecting them fully.
Albares assured that the Twenty-seven have been talking about these sanctions for “time”, that they have not been prepared “blindly” and that they have had “full support” from the EU countries, adding that the ministers have had “a reflection ( …) about the impact it could have on the economies, not only Spanish, but also European”.
The Dutch minister, Wopke Hoekstra, indicated that there is “great consensus” on the potential application of “a strong package of sanctions” and stressed that there will be no distinction between “minor or major aggression” from Russia to Ukraine when deciding on the application of those measures.
He stressed that “all options are on the table,” including Russia’s exclusion from the Swift international banking data system, as proposed by the United States.
Meanwhile, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed this Monday a new financial aid package for Ukraine of 1,200 million euros in loans and grants to help the country “meet its financing needs due to the conflict” with Russia.
Borrell stressed that they are also studying how to support Ukraine against cyber threats and that they continue to accelerate the preparation of an EU assistance mission in that country to reform military education.
“We constantly talk to our partners that are geographically farthest from Russia and they have not always been aware of the problem. Today there is a greater understanding of how serious the danger is. It is good news that this understanding has been reached,” Polish Minister Pawel Jablonski concluded.
EFE and AFP
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