updateRussia does not want to go to war against Ukraine. This was emphasized by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a press conference this morning.
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“If it is up to the Russian Federation, there will be no war,” Lavrov told Russian radio stations. “But we will not let our interests be trampled on and ignored.”
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The pressure surrounding a possible Russian invasion of the Eastern European country has been rising in recent days. Both the United States and NATO allies are watching with concern as the Russians stationed some 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders. US President Joe Biden already warned the Ukrainian leader that there is a “good possibility” that Russia would take military action against the former Soviet state in February.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, for his part, is urging Western leaders not to panic about Russian troops just across the Ukrainian border into Russia. “We can’t use panic,” also in view of Ukraine’s weak economy. According to Zelenski, it is “important not to get all information from intelligence services. What’s important is to be here.”
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Ukraine is in danger of losing its economy, Zelensky said. According to him, the situation is essentially the same as in 2014. “The greatest danger for Ukraine is destabilization from within.” In the impasse with Russia, NATO is now the only guarantee of security in Ukraine, according to Zelensky. The eastern member states of that alliance are at risk of falling victim to Russian cyberattacks, like Ukraine.
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He urged Russia to take swift steps to ease tensions or “de-escalate” the crisis. His Russian and French counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, also felt this in a conversation on Friday.
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EU and US work together on gas supply to Europe, including for Ukraine
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The EU and the US are joining forces to ensure energy security in the EU and Ukraine. The two power blocs are working together to prevent natural gas supply problems, even if that were to happen as a result of “another Russian invasion” of Ukraine. President Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen write this in a joint statement.
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Brussels and Washington are committed to a “sustained, sufficient and timely supply of natural gas, from various sources worldwide,” the statement said. The Americans are already negotiating with companies and countries worldwide about gas supplies.
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Franse president
Russia has to choose between confrontation or consultation, it is up to President Putin to make a choice. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said this today after President Macron Putin spoke by phone about tensions over Ukraine. Putin will call his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky later in the day. The latter called on the West not to panic about the situation. Macron previously expressed hope that the call with Putin will lead to “firm dialogue and clarifications”. He wants to chart a path to de-escalation as more than 100,000 Russian soldiers have gathered at the Ukrainian border. Diplomatic consultations have not yielded much so far.
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The Kremlin reported that Putin reiterated to Macron that the West has ignored security concerns in Moscow. He noted that the United States and NATO have rejected Russia’s demand that Ukraine cannot become a member of NATO. So is Putin’s demand that NATO troops leave Eastern Europe. A formal response from Russia will follow. “The ball is now in the Russian court,” said Le Drian. According to him, “of course” there is still a risk that Russia will invade Ukraine. He repeated that this would have serious consequences for Moscow.
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No compromises
Russia continues to reiterate that it has no plans for an invasion, but has demanded that NATO promise that Ukraine will never join and that the alliance reverse the deployment of troops and military equipment in Eastern Europe. The US and NATO formally rejected those demands this week, although the US has come back with points it would still like to discuss with Russia.
Russia’s official response to those proposals will come from President Vladimir Putin, but the Kremlin has said there was “little reason for optimism.” “They say they won’t change their position, but neither will we,” Lavrov said this morning. “I don’t see any room for compromise here.”
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Harassment
The frictions between the West and Russia lead, among other things, to more and more bullying at the diplomatic level. Russia has complained that the United States has demanded that 55 diplomats be withdrawn from the Russian embassy in Washington this year. It would then have to continue with 184 employees, a fraction of what it was five years ago. It is common for the reaction to such evictions to lead to similar evictions in the affected country. Then more Americans have to leave the embassy in Moscow. Russia today also informed the European Union that it will ban a number of Europeans who are active in the military industry.
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In 2014, an elected pro-Russian president in Ukraine was ousted. Biden was then vice president of the United States. According to the Russians, this was in a US-led coup, according to the West through a pro-European popular uprising. Russia annexed Crimea in an angry reaction. The peninsula had been annexed to the Soviet Republic of Ukraine in the 1950s and remained Ukrainian after the collapse of the Soviet Union to the annoyance of the Kremlin.
