German Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to travel to Ukraine and Russia this Monday to talk with the presidents of both countriesin the middle of the high tensions between the West and Moscow and rumors of a brewing war. In parallel, the President of the United States, Joe Bidenspoke on Sunday with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodimir Zelensky Y agreed to insist on “diplomacy and deterrence”. Meanwhile, different airlines cancel or divert their flights bound for Kiev.
Scholz called the conflict between Russia and Ukraine a “critical and very dangerous” situationand reiterated that Germany, the European Union (EU) and NATO will impose “tough” sanctions on Russia of immediate application in case the predictions of the West are fulfilled that Moscow will invade Ukraine. The chancellor who succeeded Angela Merkel will meet this Monday in the Ukrainian capital with President Zelensky, and a day later he will be received by Putin in Moscow.
The Dutch airline KLM canceled all flights to Ukraine until new notice. In addition, the Ukrainian charter company SkyUp said a flight from Madeira, Portugal, bound for Kiev was diverted this Sunday to the capital of Moldova, Chisinau. The company said in a statement that the decision was made after the Irish company that leased the plane to them said it had banned flights into Ukrainian airspace.
Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry said in a statement that its airspace “remains open and the State is working to prevent risks for airlines.”
President Volodimir Zelensky invited his American counterpart, Joe Biden, to visit Kiev in the coming days on Sunday. “I am convinced that his arrival will be a powerful signal and will contribute to the de-escalation,” Zelensky told Biden in a nearly hour-long phone conversation between the two.
According to the Ukrainian presidency, the two presidents discussed the security situation around Ukraine due to the deployment of more than 100,000 Russian soldiers on the country’s border and exchanged information about the Russian threat. “Let’s stop any escalation around Ukraine,” Zelensky told Biden.to whom he assured that the capital and other cities, such as Kharkov and Lviv, Dnipro and Odessa are safe and under protection.
The United States accuses Russia of preparing to invade its neighboring former Soviet republic, with whose nationalist and pro-Western government it is strongly at odds. Russia, for its part, denies having plans to invade Ukraine, but took advantage of the crisis to demand from the United States guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO, something that it sees as a threat, and that the alliance will reduce its troops in Eastern European countries. Washington and the Atlantic alliance rejected that demand.