American-Russian face-to-face escalation in Ukraine

The heads of the American and Russian diplomacy find themselves Thursday, December 2 in Sweden at the height of tensions on Ukraine, while Washington affirmed to have

of preparations for Russian invasion and brandished the threat of painful sanctions.

Read also Ukrainians increasingly worried about a Russian offensive in preparation

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov are due to meet on the sidelines of the meeting in the suburbs of Stockholm of the fifty ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). A rare international forum for dialogue of which the United States and Russia are both members, the OSCE has been responsible since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 to monitor compliance with the peace agreements supposed to settle the conflict in the United States. is rebel from Ukraine.

Kiev and its Western allies have sounded the alarm since November concerning a further reinforcement of Russian troops on the borders of Ukraine and a possible winter invasion.

Moscow, which has already seized Crimea and is accused of supporting separatists fighting Kiev, has denied planning an attack and in return blames NATO for fueling tensions.

We don't know if President Putin made the decision to invade.

We know he's building the capacity to do it quickly, if he chooses.

"

Antony Blinken, head of US diplomacy

These took another step up on Wednesday. At an Atlantic Alliance meeting in Riga, Antony Blinken said he was

by

that Russian President Vladimir Putin

.

he said. The American insisted that diplomacy was

and threatened witha response by

that Washington has

.

Read alsoUkraine at gunpoint while Russia masss troops at its border

On Wednesday, Moscow responded to these suspicions again by accusing Ukraine of massaging tens of thousands of soldiers in the east of the country. President Putin called on Wednesday for

preventing NATO's expansion towards the East and the deployment of its weapons systems near Russian borders, proposing to launch

on this subject. . After the entry into NATO of a good part of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union, the mere idea that Ukraine might follow one day insupports Russia, despite the demand. Kiev's membership has so far remained a dead letter.

Also on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for direct talks with Moscow on the ongoing conflict with Russian-backed separatists in the east of his country, a war that has already claimed 13,000 lives.

Before meeting Sergey Lavrov, Antony Blinken must have a tête-à-tête with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kouleba, also present in Stockholm.

Read also According to Kiev and Washington, Russia could attack Ukraine this winter

Long planned, the OSCE meeting

, noted the American ambassador to the organization Michael Carpenter, with the increase in tensions on the steps of Europe. Besides Ukraine, recent weeks have been marked by the migrant crisis at the borders of Belarus and the European Union and by a brief resurgence of clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan - all members of the OSCE. The EU reached an agreement on Wednesday for further sanctions against Belarus, and the US is expected to follow

, according to the US State Department.

The plenary meeting of ministers should not lead to the adoption of significant texts, unanimity being the order of the day.

Moscow thus regularly blocks draft resolutions on Ukraine, because they mention that Crimea is Ukrainian, or that Russia is a direct actor in the conflict in the east of the country, when Moscow officially sees only that. 'a Ukrainian-Ukrainian war.

The Blinken-Lavrov meeting is the first at a high level between the two rival great powers since the summit between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in Geneva in June.