KYIV, Ukraine- Diplomatic efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis remained at a stalemate Friday, prompting a stark warning from NATO that Europe faces a “dangerous moment” as Russia kicks off a second day of major military exercises near Ukraine’s borders that analysts say could presage an invasion.
President Biden, in an interview on NBC’s “Nightly News,” urged U.S. citizens in Ukraine to “leave now,” adding that “things could go crazy, quickly,” given Russia’s military strength. Biden scheduled a call for Friday with his counterparts in Canada, the U.K. and other NATO partners to further coordinate “diplomacy and deterrence,” the White House said Friday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday during a visit to Australia that the West continues to see “troubling signs of Russian escalation, including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border.”
“As we’ve said before, we’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time, and to be clear, that includes during the Olympics,” Blinken said. He referred to speculation among some officials that Russian President Vladimir Putin may wait for the conclusion of the Olympic Games in Beijing to avoid angering China, its key partner. The exercises are scheduled to end on Feb. 20, the same day as the games conclude.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, invoked diplomatic agreements to ask Russia for detailed information about its exercises, including precise locations, numbers of troops and dates of completed activity. Russia has 48 hours to comply, Kuleba said. Failing that could escalate to emergency meetings within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, experts said.
Biden’s remarks were aired after a tense encounter Thursday between British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow. She warned that a renewed Russian invasion of Ukraine would lead to “severe consequences,” while Lavrov characterized their meeting as a conversation between the “deaf and the dumb.”
In Berlin, negotiators representing Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany failed to come to an agreement after nine hours of discussions seeking a resolution to a long-running conflict between Kyiv and Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine’s contested east. There were no immediate plans for another round of the “Normandy format” talks, although Ukraine’s envoy said he hoped negotiations would continue.
Britain’s diplomatic efforts were further stymied Friday following a meeting in Moscow between Russia Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his British counterpart, Ben Wallace. The meeting came after Wallace announced that 350 British Royal Marines would soon be deployed to Poland in a gesture of solidarity.
“Unfortunately, the level of our cooperation is close to zero and about to cross the zero meridian and go into negative, which is undesirable,” Shoigu said, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Russian news agencies. He blasted Ukraine’s partners for “gorging” the country with weapons, a reference to the United States supplying antitank weapons, and to other NATO allies, such as Lithuania, spiriting antiaircraft launchers into Ukraine. (Washington Post)
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