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No relaxation in the Ukraine conflict: Blinken hits Lavrov

2022-01-21T04:07:30.727Z


No relaxation in the Ukraine conflict: Blinken hits Lavrov Created: 01/21/2022 04:52 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Chancellery in Berlin. © Annegret Hilse/Reuters/Pool/dpa Efforts to de-escalate the Ukraine crisis are in full swing. The United States and Russia are blaming each other. Can the meeting of foreign ministers bring about relaxation? Geneva/Washington/Moscow - US Secre


No relaxation in the Ukraine conflict: Blinken hits Lavrov

Created: 01/21/2022 04:52

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Chancellery in Berlin.

© Annegret Hilse/Reuters/Pool/dpa

Efforts to de-escalate the Ukraine crisis are in full swing.

The United States and Russia are blaming each other.

Can the meeting of foreign ministers bring about relaxation?

Geneva/Washington/Moscow - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned before the crisis meeting with his Russian colleague Sergey Lavrov of the danger of a further escalation in the Ukraine conflict.

When asked how big he assessed the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Blinken said on Thursday evening on ZDF's "heute journal" after a translation by the broadcaster: "It's a real risk and it's a high risk." Blinken hits together with Lavrov this Friday in Geneva.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Lavrov wanted to blink in detail and go through Moscow's demands on NATO and the US for security guarantees for Russia.

A written response from the US side with comments on the individual points of the Russian document is expected soon.

Blinking: Expect “no big breakthroughs”

Referring to the security guarantees demanded by Russia, Blinken said: "We have already made concessions.

Not just in the past few weeks, but over many years.

For many years, NATO has repeatedly reached out.” He does not expect “any major breakthroughs” from the meeting.

But it is an important moment to take stock.

While the USA and its western allies are demanding a withdrawal of the Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border, Moscow is demanding security guarantees and an end to the eastward expansion of the western military alliance NATO.

Efforts to ease the tension have been in full swing since last week, but have so far produced no tangible results.

Blinken emphasized: “If a Russian soldier enters Ukraine across the border, then we are dealing with a really profound problem, because that is a very clear attack on Ukraine, whether it is one soldier or a thousand soldiers After a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Blinken said on Twitter on Thursday evening: "We are determined to impose massive consequences and high costs on Russia if it prefers conflict to diplomacy."

Zakharova accused the West of a campaign aimed at covering up its own military provocations in Ukraine.

Russia is calling on Western countries to "stop the aggressive anti-Russian information campaign and to stop militarizing Ukraine and drawing it into NATO."

Zakharova criticized that the US was arming Ukraine with billions in military aid.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, demanded that Russia be excluded from the Swift payment system.

"Ukrainians are therefore calling on the Ampel government to put aside all concerns and decouple Russia from Swift," Melnyk told Funke media group newspapers.

This harsh punitive measure must "remain in the toolbox of hellish sanctions as an efficient deterrent against Putin".

Possible expulsion from Swift

If banks can no longer use the international banking communication network Swift, this can have far-reaching consequences for their business.

The institutions are then more or less excluded from international money flows.

Transferring money from abroad to a country is becoming more difficult, and vice versa.

A possible exclusion of Russia from Swift is being discussed intensively as a sanction against the country in the tense Ukraine conflict.

Blinken had talks in Kiev on Wednesday and then traveled on to Berlin.

There, after talks with the most important European allies, he warned of a “crisis with global consequences” if Russia invaded Ukraine.

His trip to Europe is another attempt to defuse the tense situation between Russia and the West.

The USA and NATO criticize a troop deployment with around 100,000 Russian soldiers on the border with Ukraine.

Moscow points out that these are its own troops on its own territory.

more on the subject

Blinken warns of Ukraine escalation ahead of Lavrov meeting

US demands de-escalation from Russia before negotiations

Ukraine conflict: Biden threatens Putin with tough sanctions

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg thanked the United States for its leadership in the conflict.

"The United States, along with all other NATO allies, has sent a very clear message that we will in no way accept any further use of military force against Ukraine," he told CNN.

"And the United States is leading efforts to coordinate all NATO allies in our response to Russia's aggressive actions against Ukraine."

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-01-21

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