Russia “will not invade Ukraine unless we are provoked to do so,” Russia’s ambassador to the European Union (EU), Vladimir Chizhov, told the British newspaper The Guardian on Monday.
“We will not invade Ukraine unless provoked to do so,” said Chizhov, who has represented Russia in Brussels since 2005.
“If the Ukrainians launch an attack against Russia, you should not be surprised if we fight back. Or if they start brazenly killing Russian citizens from anywhere, in Donbas or anywhere else,” he added, referring to the region in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years.
Chizhov warned that a Ukrainian “provocation” could prompt the Kremlin to act.
“What I mean by provocation is that they can organize an incident against the self-proclaimed republics of Donbas, provoke them and then hit them with all their might, thus provoking a reaction from Russia to prevent a humanitarian disaster on its borders,” he added.
The presence of more than 100,000 Russian soldiers concentrated on the Ukrainian border is raising fears that a major conflict will break out in Europe.
Meanwhile, this Monday the US began the process to “temporarily relocate” its embassy in Ukraine, which will cease operations in Kiev and move to the largest city in the west of the country, Lviv, near the border with Poland.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in a statement that he ordered this measure out of “prudence” and to guarantee “the safety of his diplomatic staff” in the nation.
“We are in the process of temporarily relocating our embassy operations from Kiev to Lviv, due to the drastic acceleration in the Russian troop buildup (on the Ukraine border),” Blinken said.
That decision comes two days after the United States ordered the departure from Ukraine of the non-essential personnel of its embassy and the suspension of the consular services of that diplomatic legation.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the State Department ordered the destruction of computers and other equipment to connect to embassy networks in the Ukrainian capital, in addition to the dismantling of the mission’s telephone system.
The confidential materials that were kept in the embassy arrived this Sunday at the Dulles (Virginia) airport, on the outskirts of Washington, along with 56 workers from the diplomatic mission, according to an internal document obtained by the newspaper.
Blinken insisted in his statement that the transfer of the embassy’s operations to Lviv (Lviv), located about 70 kilometers from the border with Poland, is a “prudent precautionary measure” that “does not undermine in any way” the commitment of United States with Ukraine.
“We will return our staff to the embassy (in Kiev) as soon as conditions allow,” he promised.
The head of US diplomacy stressed that US citizens who remain in Ukraine should “leave the country immediately”, three days after the White House asked them to do so within a maximum period of 48 hours.
“The path of diplomacy remains available if Russia decides to take it in good faith,” Blinken said.
Tensions between Kiev and Moscow have increased since last November, after Russia stationed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, which triggered alarms in Ukraine and the West, which denounced the preparations for an invasion.
The United States insists a Russian attack on Ukraine may be “imminent,” while Russia denies planning an invasion, saying it has a sovereign right to station troops anywhere on its territory. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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