(Moscow) European diplomatic efforts on the conflict in Ukraine have stalled, participants noted on Friday, progress in this file being nevertheless considered crucial to defuse the Russian-Western crisis which threatens to degenerate into war.
Posted at 8:48 a.m.
A sign of the volatility of the situation, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken estimated on Friday that Russia could “at any time” invade Ukraine, on the borders of which it has massed more than 100,000 soldiers and heavy weapons since months.
“We still see no signs of de-escalation in the current situation and we deeply regret that,” German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on Friday.
Several rounds of talks in recent days have failed to make progress in resolving this crisis, which Westerners describe as the most dangerous since the end of the Cold War three decades ago.
Friday, the Kremlin noted that discussions bringing together the day before in Berlin representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France had produced “no result”.
Moscow, which already annexed Crimea in 2014, denies any aggressive intentions towards Ukraine, but conditions any de-escalation on a series of demands, in particular the assurance that Kiev will never join NATO. Unacceptable, say Westerners.
In parallel with this observation, Russia announced new military maneuvers on the Ukrainian border.
While Russia has been carrying out major maneuvers in Belarus, Ukraine’s neighbor since Thursday, Moscow announced on Friday other “combat mission” training in the Russian border region of Rostov, with hundreds of soldiers and chariots.
In addition, the Russian navy conducts maneuvers in the Black Sea, of which Ukraine is also bordering.
“Difficult” talks
Faced with the specter of war on European soil, the leaders of the old continent are continuing their diplomatic efforts.
In the wake of French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is due to see President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev on Monday, then Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in Moscow.
In addition, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace was in the Russian capital on Friday to meet with his counterpart Sergei Shoigu.
But discussions Thursday in Berlin in the “Normandy” format, bringing together Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, showed the gap which separates Moscow from the West and their Ukrainian allies.
The discussions, which lasted nearly 10 hours, were “difficult”, sources close to the French and German negotiators told AFP.
Moscow insists in particular that Kiev negotiates directly with the separatists supported by Russia that the Ukrainian army has been fighting since 2014 in the east of the country, a conflict which has left more than 14,000 dead.
PHOTO OLEKSANDR KLYMENKO, REUTERS
A Ukrainian soldier walks near the separation line between Russian-backed rebels and Ukraine on the outskirts of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region on February 11.
Ukraine categorically refuses, believing that Moscow was the only relevant interlocutor as a sponsor of the separatists.
Nevertheless, Kiev estimated on Friday that “everyone has the will to obtain a result” and that the talks would continue.
Risk of “runaway”
In this context, US President Joe Biden urged his fellow citizens on Thursday to leave Ukraine without delay because “things could get carried away very quickly”.
The Ukrainian government, which has repeatedly denounced Washington’s alarmism, hastened to put the scope of these statements into perspective.
“This statement does not show a radical change in the situation,” said the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba.
Mr. Biden further reiterated that he would not send soldiers on the ground in Ukraine, even to evacuate Americans in the event of a Russian invasion, because that could start “a world war”.
“When Americans and Russians start shooting at each other, we’re in a very different world,” he said in an interview with NBC.
The United States, on the other hand, warned Russia that it would be subject to devastating economic sanctions in the event of military aggression.
But Moscow, which poses as the victim of an aggressive NATO policy, has so far ignored these threats.
Washington and European countries have also announced the dispatch of a few thousand soldiers to Eastern Europe as support.