Berlin hosts talks between America and its European allies to discuss the Russian threat (Getty)
The US President said Of the bygonesToday, Thursday, he made it clear to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin Any movement of the Russian armed forces into Ukraine would be considered an invasion.
Speaking to reporters, Biden added, according to “Archyde.com”, that Russia will pay a heavy price if it invades Ukraine, and that the United States has prepared wide-ranging sanctions to impose it on Moscow if this happens.
Prior to that, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken vowed in Berlin, during a press conference with his German counterpart, Annalina Birbock, to respond to “any” Russian forces’ encroachment on the Ukrainian borders.
“We have been very clear all along that if any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border and commit new aggressive acts once morest Ukraine, they will be met with a swift and strong response from the United States, our allies and our partners,” Blinken told reporters, according to AFP.
Today, the US Treasury announced new sanctions once morest four Ukrainian officials, including two current members of parliament, which administrative officials say are part of Russian influence efforts to create a pretext to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
For her part, German Foreign Minister Annalina Birbock stressed that any new hostile Russian action would have “serious repercussions.”
“We urge Russia to take steps towards de-escalation,” Birbock said in a press conference, adding, while her American counterpart, Anthony Blinken, stood by her side: “Any new hostile attitude, any new hostile act, will have serious repercussions.”
Johnson vows to respond to any Russian abuse
In turn, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Russia in a firm tone once morest taking any military action in Ukraine, before joining the talks between the United States and European allies in Berlin on the Ukraine crisis.
He told reporters: “There is no doubt that if Russia makes any form of incursion, of any size, I think it will be a disaster, not only for Ukraine but for Russia, and it will be a disaster for the world.”
He added that Britain “firmly” supports Ukraine’s sovereignty, while US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is supposed to meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva.
The Ukrainian president links the security of Europe with the security of Ukraine
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky considered that ensuring the security of the European continent is impossible without restoring the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
In a distributed video, Zelensky said that ensuring “comprehensive security in Europe is impossible without restoring Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Zelensky expressed hope for a “de-escalation”.
“I hope that our joint efforts and our talks with the Russian Federation will lead to de-escalation on the border with Ukraine, and to Russian guarantees for peace in Donbas,” he said.
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Russia announced, earlier today, that it will conduct huge naval maneuvers with the participation of more than 140 warships and support ships, this month and next February.
The maneuvers will take place in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Arctic Ocean and the Mediterranean, with the participation of “more than 140 warships and support ships, more than 60 aircraft, 1,000 pieces of military equipment and nearly 10,000 soldiers,” the Defense Ministry announced in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
In recent months, tensions have increased over Ukraine, which is threatened, according to the West, with a possible Russian invasion, and will be at the center of the Russian-American discussions that began Monday in Geneva.
The situation has been tense between Kiev and Moscow since Russia annexed the Ukrainian Crimea in 2014, and the ensuing war in eastern Ukraine with pro-Russian separatists left more than 13,000 people dead.
