Fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine deepened once again on Tuesday with new revelations that Moscow had begun emptying its embassy in the capital, Kyiv, in recent days.
The staff movement was reportedly ordered by the Kremlin, as diplomatic talks underway since last week in hopes of a de-escalation have only exposed the differences between the two parties. Talks which, moreover, were relaunched on Tuesday, NATO having invited Russia to resume dialogue to find a diplomatic solution to the current crisis.
“Today I have invited Russia and all of the allies of [l’Alliance] to participate in a series of meetings of the NATO-Russia Council in the near future”, indicated its Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, during a press conference held in Berlin together with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
These talks will aim to “address our concerns, but also listen to Russia’s concerns” and “find a way forward to prevent any military attack on Ukraine”, he added.
While claiming to have no plan to invade Ukraine, Russia continues to send contradictory signals to the West. Tuesday, the New York Times revealed that since January 5, the Kremlin began discreetly the evacuation of its diplomatic personnel in Ukraine. The gesture can foretell the approach of an imminent attack as well as a bluff aimed at putting pressure on NATO and its allies.
For months, Moscow has been asking them for a commitment, by signing a treaty, that the Alliance will not extend its influence to the East by bringing Ukraine into this organization.
Nearly fifty people, from the embassy in Kiev, but also from the consulate in Lviv, in the west of the country, children and wives of diplomats for the most part, took the road to Russia at the beginning of the ‘year. Diplomats from all Russian missions in Ukraine are preparing to follow them in the coming days, an official Ukrainian source working in the field of national security told the American daily.
Exchanges maintained
This information echoes the Pentagon’s accusations on Friday that Moscow is preparing false flag operations to justify an invasion of Ukrainian territory. On Sunday, Russia described as “total disinformation” the idea that it would seek to create, by acts of sabotage or attacks perpetrated against it and by it, favorable conditions for an imminent invasion of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, is expected in Kiev for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in order to “reinforce the commitment of the United States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement on Tuesday.
On Monday, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly was also in Kiev, where she promised additional economic aid from Canada to support the Ukrainian government in the face of uncertainty caused by the threat of a Russian invasion. Remember that Canada is in favor of Ukraine joining NATO.
On the sidelines of these visits, the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, demanded Tuesday from his American counterpart “concrete” answers to his demands formulated during talks last week on the Ukrainian crisis, during a telephone interview. And this, “as soon as possible”, added Moscow.
The two diplomats also discussed “the possibility of continuing contacts in the near future,” the Russian ministry said in a statement.
According to the daily Kommersant, the two ministers agreed during this telephone exchange to meet on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland. But neither Moscow nor Washington confirmed this immediately.
Military maneuvers
Turkey, a NATO member that provides drones to Ukraine much to Moscow’s chagrin, has warned Russia of the risks of invading Ukraine, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan even saying that he was going to raise the subject with Vladimir Putin.
“I don’t see Russia invading Ukraine as a realistic option because it’s not an ordinary country. Ukraine is a powerful country,” he said.
Nevertheless, in addition to the deployment of 100,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine, Russia has begun military combat preparation maneuvers in Belarus, on the borders of Europe and Ukraine. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told foreign military attachés stationed in Moscow that the drills were intended to “repel external aggression”.
On Tuesday, Washington indicated that the two sides had reached the “stage where Russia can launch an attack in Ukraine at any time”, according to White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, while calling the situation ” extremely dangerous”.
Last week, Poland, which holds the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), called the risk of war in Europe the highest “for 30 years”.
With Agence France-Presse