US says diplomacy remains open to end Ukraine crisis

U.S said that diplomatic channels remained open to end the confrontation with Moscow for Ukrainebut stated that the risk of Russian military action was high enough to justify withdrawing US embassy staff from Kiev.

The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, spoke after talks on Saturday with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea, following Washington’s warning that the Russian Army, which has more than 100,000 soldiers concentrated near Ukraine, could invade the country at any time.

Moscow, which has repeatedly denied planning an invasion and has said it is responding to aggression by NATO allies, has dismissed such warnings as “hysteria.”

“The diplomatic channel remains open. The way for Moscow to show that it wants to go down that path is simple. It must de-escalate, instead of escalate,” Blinken said after their meetings, in the US Pacific archipelago, Hawaii.

In an hour-long conversation on Saturday, US President Joe Biden told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that the West would respond decisively to any invasion of Ukraine, adding that it would also cause widespread suffering and isolate Moscow. .

Neither side said there had been any progress.

The Kremlin reported that Putin told Biden that Washington had not taken Russia’s main concerns into account and had not received any “substantial responses” on key issues of his security demands.

Washington on Saturday ordered most of its embassy staff to immediately leave Ukraine amid the threat of invasion.

Many of Washington’s European allies and other countries have also reduced or evacuated staff from their missions in Kiev and urged their citizens to leave or avoid traveling to Ukraine.