China: we oppose the meeting, negotiations already underway
Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Jun said Beijing supports Moscow in opposing a council meeting. “Both sides have shown their willingness to continue negotiations,” he told several journalists on Friday. “Let them resolve differences through dialogue, through negotiations.” “Russia has made it clear that it does not intend to make a war” and the Security Council should “help reduce tensions instead of adding fuel to the fire,” Zhang said.
Head of Russian Security Council: We don’t want war
The head of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, on Sunday rejected Western warnings about an invasion. “Right now, they are saying that Russia is threatening Ukraine: But this is completely ridiculous,” he said, speaking through the state news agency Tass. “We don’t want war and we don’t need it at all.”
In Kiev “thwarted attempt to create unrest”
Ukrainian security forces arrested a group of people who, according to Kiev, were preparing a riot in the capital. This was announced by Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky quoted by Interfax on its website. The authorities are working to identify “the principals and beneficiaries”, in particular to establish whether there is a link with the Russian services. According to the minister, street demonstrations had been prepared in Kiev during which riots should have broken out “to destabilize the situation”. Similar initiatives had been prepared in other cities, in the Sumy, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Poltava regions.
Moscow: “If London imposes sanctions, there will be retaliation”
There will be a “retaliation” from Moscow if London follows up the threat to impose sanctions on Russian companies in the next few days. This was stated by the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, commenting during a press point the words of the British Foreign Minister Liz Truss, who in an interview with Sky announced that “every company of interest in the Kremlin” will be targeted for the Ukrainian crisis, adding that “there will be nowhere to hide” for the oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin. «The British Foreign Minister spoke of some sanctions. But here, I think, we have to call everything by its real name. Sanctions are something legitimate and formally approved if decided by the UN Security Council – said Peskov – In this case it is a blatant attack on companies ».
Russia carries out anti-submarine maneuvers in the Norwegian Sea
Meanwhile, a group of Russian ships from the Northern Fleet conducted a maneuver in the Norwegian Sea, north-west of the Scandinavian country, targeting an alleged enemy submarine. The submarine, according to the naval force, cited by the Tass agency, was identified with a system of sonar and data provided by aircraft pilots and was chased by the missile launcher Marshal Ustinov and the frigate Admiral Kasatonov with the help of a helicopter for anti-submarine warfare. In recent days, Moscow has launched exercises of all its fleets globally, coinciding with the increase in tensions with the West over the Ukrainian crisis.
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