(Liverpool) Assistant US Secretary of State for Europe Karen Donfried will visit Ukraine and Russia next week for talks on military escalation on the border between the two countries, where Moscow is massing troops , the State Department said on Saturday.
Mme Donfried will be in Kiev and Moscow from Monday to Wednesday to meet with senior government officials “and to strengthen the United States’ commitment to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” he said. he added.
She will “insist on the possibility of making diplomatic progress to put an end to the conflict in the Donbass”, in eastern Ukraine, “by implementing the Minsk agreements,” US diplomacy said in a statement. communicated.
These agreements reached in 2015 to end the war that broke out a year earlier in this Ukrainian region between the forces of Kiev and pro-Russian separatists were never really respected.
The United States, NATO, Europeans and Ukraine have accused Russia for several weeks of massing troops with a view to possibly invading the neighboring country – which the Kremlin denies. US President Joe Biden met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and threatened Moscow with unprecedented sanctions in the event of aggression against Kiev.
Despite still extreme tensions, the two leaders had decided to task their teams with follow-up meetings to see if a diplomatic de-escalation was possible. Karen Donfried’s visit will therefore be the first step in this diplomatic process.
Washington affirms that the solution passes by the implementation of the Minsk agreements and proposes its mediation. This, assures the State Department in its press release, is “in support” of the “Normandy format” which has presided over the signing of the agreements and so far their monitoring, and which brings together Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France but not the United States.
The American diplomat will then travel to Brussels from Wednesday to Thursday to consult with European and NATO allies.