(Kiev) Ukraine welcomed Tuesday its “unity” with the West against Moscow’s “ultimatums” during the Russian-American discussions the day before in Switzerland, Washington wondering for its part if Russia is “ready” to be seriously negotiated ”.
Posted at 4:52 p.m.
“The talks in Geneva have shown that our strength lies in the unity and coherence of positions in the face of […] Russian ultimatums ”, declared the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kouleba during a telephone interview with the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the day after the meeting of Wendy Sherman, number two in American diplomacy, with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov.
Mr. Kouleba, who stressed that the United States remains his country’s essential security partner, and Mr. Blinken on this occasion discussed the next steps to dissuade Moscow from launching an attack on Ukraine, which has been fighting a pro-Russian separatist rebellion in the east of its territory since 2014.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki meanwhile expressed doubts about Russia’s real intentions regarding these negotiations.
PHOTO JIM WATSON, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
During a press briefing, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki expressed doubts about Russia’s real intentions regarding these negotiations.
It is “too early to say whether the Russians […] are ready to negotiate seriously “, Moscow can” use these discussions to pretend that diplomacy is not working “and continue its” aggressive “actions, declared Mme Psaki during a press briefing.
“NATO’s relations with Ukraine are the sole concern of Ukraine and the thirty allied countries” within this organization, she repeated, while Russia demands that the Atlantic Alliance closes forever. door to Ukrainians.
New diplomatic contacts
Tensions around Ukraine have increased in recent months, with Washington and European allies in Kiev accusing Russia of massing troops near the Ukrainian border in preparation for an invasion.
Moscow, for its part, demanded written guarantees to exclude Ukraine, as well as Georgia, another former Soviet republic, from joining NATO.
The Geneva talks only resulted in the promise of new contacts between Russians and Americans.
A meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, involving high-ranking diplomats from Alliance members and representatives from Moscow, is scheduled for Wednesday in Brussels, the first since July 2019.
The United States and its allies previously consulted on Tuesday in the Belgian capital.
Paris for its part mentioned Tuesday a meeting of the Normandy group (France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine) “by the end of January” as well as a “gesture” from Kiev to try to relaunch the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.
The Kremlin’s envoy in the peace negotiations in Ukraine, Dmitri Kozak, “gave his agreement for us to resume negotiations in the Normandy group at the level of diplomatic advisers”, declared the French presidency.
“We think we can hold a first meeting (at this level) by the end of January,” added the Elysee after a joint visit by the diplomatic advisers of French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Moscow then in Kiev.
Foreign ministers of EU member states will discuss European proposals on security in Europe on Thursday and Friday.
This meeting will be “the opportunity to decide together on the next steps we want to give to our involvement in the dialogue with Russia,” said a French diplomatic source.
In reaction to the coming to power of pro-Westerners in early 2014 in Ukraine, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and supported, according to Kiev and the West, the separatist rebellion in the eastern regions bordering its territory.
This conflict has claimed more than 13,000 lives to date.