The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken said on Friday that he saw in the outbreak of clashes in eastern Ukraine “a scenario” of “provocations” designed by the Russians to justify an attack on Ukraine.
The events of the “last 24 / 48 hours” are “part of a scenario already in place, which consists of creating false provocations, then responding to these provocations and finally committing a new aggression against Ukraine”, accused Mr. Blinken during a speech at the Munich Security Conference.
“While we are doing everything in our power to make it clear that there is a diplomatic way” to this serious crisis between the West and Russia, “we are deeply concerned that this is not the way in which Russia is engaged”, lamented the diplomat.
Mr. Blinken made similar accusations Thursday before the UN Security Council.
Eastern Ukraine experienced new bombings on Friday, with the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists accusing each other.
Russia, which denies any plan of invasion but calls for the withdrawal of NATO from Eastern Europe, is considered the military and financial godfather of the separatists in eastern Ukraine.
It would be “catastrophic” if the crisis between Russia and Ukraine escalated into war, said UN chief Antonio Guterres, who opened the Munich Conference.
“Not encouraging”
“With a concentration of Russian troops around Ukraine, I am deeply concerned about rising tensions and speculation of a military conflict in Europe,” he warned.
Russia poses “an absolutely unacceptable threat” to European security, lamented the head of German diplomacy Annalena Baerbock, who shared the platform alongside them.
Recent Russian announcements of a partial troop withdrawal “have been a beacon of hope”, but Ms Baerbock said she hoped “to see action, because the Russian threat is still real”.
“This crisis is not a Ukrainian crisis. It’s a Russian crisis,” she said.
While Russia on Thursday submitted to the United States its strategic demands on security in Europe, to defuse the crisis around Ukraine, Ms. Baerbock considered the Russian proposals “so far not encouraging”.
“We want to discuss these subjects at any time” with Russia, but “not with proposals that call into question the security architecture that we have built together” in Europe.
Earlier in the day, she had denounced Russian demands “dating from the Cold War”.
International leaders and high-ranking diplomats are gathering in Munich, southern Germany, from Friday to Sunday for three days of discussions on defense and security issues.
Meetings in different formats will follow one another in Munich, where US Vice-President Kamala Harris, the main heads of EU diplomacy, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are also present.
The Russians, regularly present at this conference, did not send any representatives this year.
Evacuation of civilians to Russia
The leader of the pro-Russian separatist “republic” of Donetsk, at war with Ukraine, announced the evacuation of civilians to neighboring Russia on Friday, accusing Kiev of preparing an invasion after an outbreak of clashes.
“Today, a massive and centralized departure of the population is being organized to the Russian Federation, in the first place, women, children and the elderly must be evacuated,” Denis Pushilin said in a video address published on his Telegram account.
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will very soon give the order to go on the offensive, and implement a plan to invade the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk”, he said in reference to the two separatist territories .
Americans and British have accused Moscow of wanting to create a pretext in the territories controlled by the separatists to invade Ukraine on the borders of which some 150,000 troops have been deployed.
For 48 clashes, a resurgence of violence has taken place along the front line, Ukrainians and separatists accusing each other of firing heavy weapons at the adversary.