A weapon pass that never ends. This Wednesday, the US Secretary of State called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to choose the “peaceful way” to end the crisis around Ukraine, while noting that Moscow might “very quickly” reinforce its troops which are already threatening his neighbour.
“I strongly hope that we can stay on a diplomatic and peaceful path, but in the end it will be President Putin’s decision,” said Anthony Blinken from Kiev, warning of the existence “of plans in place to increase even more” the Russian forces deployed by tens of thousands on the Ukrainian border.
The head of the American diplomacy arrived this Wednesday in Kiev, the first stage of a European tour devoted to the Russian-Western crisis around Ukraine, threatened with a military offensive from the Kremlin once morest the backdrop of diplomatic efforts which are out of breath.
An attack at any time
The Biden administration “approved last month a provision of $200 million in additional defensive security assistance to our Ukrainian partners,” a senior US official said during the early hours of this visit. Washington provided $450 million in military aid to Kiev late last year.
After a round of talks with Russia last week, Russians and Westerners, Americans in the lead, have seen the gulf separating them, but the American diplomat still hopes to be able to find a diplomatic way out, even if the United States is now ringing the bell. all-out alarm once morest Russia.
“We are at a stage where Russia can launch an attack in Ukraine at any time,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday, speaking of an “extremely dangerous situation” shortly before takeoff. by Antony Blinken for Europe.
Thousands of Russian soldiers at the border
Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops to the Ukrainian border in recent weeks. While denying wanting to go on the attack, she affirms that a de-escalation requires guarantees for her security, in particular the commitment never to enlarge NATO and to no longer support Ukraine.
After his first stop on Wednesday in Kiev, the head of American diplomacy is expected this Thursday in Berlin for discussions with Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
Finally, this Friday, Antony Blinken is due to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva, to try to renew the dialogue, despite the increasingly alarmist tone of Washington.
Last concern of the White House: the possible deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus, a neighboring country of Ukraine which hosts important military maneuvers with Russia.
If Moscow takes action in Ukraine, “no option is excluded” on the American side, warned Jen Psaki, questioned both on the very strategic Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline leading to Germany, and on an exclusion of Russia from “Swift”, an essential system of international banking exchanges.
The Kremlin sweeps away the threats
At the end of last week, Washington had already accused Moscow of having sent agents to Ukraine to carry out “sabotage” operations in order to create a “pretext” for an invasion.
London, for its part, announced the shipment of weapons, such as anti-tank missiles, to Ukraine, which is rightly complaining regarding the lack of eagerness of the West to strengthen their military aid.
VIDEO. In Ukraine, soldiers brave the cold of the trenches in the face of the Russian threat
Threats of new Western sanctions have been brushed aside by the Kremlin. Russia called on Tuesday for “concrete” answers to its demands before any new talks on Ukraine.
Russia denies any belligerent ambition in Ukraine, says it is threatened by the strengthening of NATO in the region since the fall of the USSR and assures that its thousands of soldiers on the Ukrainian border do not constitute a threat.
In response to a pro-Western revolution in Ukraine, Russia already annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 and is widely seen as the military sponsor of pro-Russian separatists in war-torn eastern Ukraine. for almost eight years.