“We have not seen any withdrawal of forces,” said Blinken. “We have not seen any de-escalation on the ground,” Stoltenberg said. “Apparently, there is a certain handicap in NATO’s system for assessing the situation,” Peskov replied.
The United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, has indicated that for now it cannot be confirmed that Russia has begun to withdraw its troops from the borders with Ukraine. “We have not seen any withdrawal of forces,” she said.
In this way, Blinken adds to the misgivings that have already been expressed, among other leaders, by the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. In fact, the head of US diplomacy has assured in statements to the MSNBC network that there are still units advancing towards the border, “not moving away” from it.
In this sense, he has advocated differentiating between “what Russia says” and “what Russia does”, as the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, has also declared in recent hours. “It would be nice if they did what they said, but so far we haven’t seen it,” Blinken warned.
“We have heard signals from Moscow about its willingness to continue diplomatic efforts, but for now we have not seen any de-escalation on the ground; on the contrary, it seems that Russia is continuing with the military reinforcement,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels upon arrival at a meeting of allied defense ministers.
For his part, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskovhas immediately replied and has questioned the analytical capacity of the Atlantic Alliance.
“Apparently, there is a certain handicap in the NATO system for assessing the situation, the state of things,” he said at a press conference. In his opinion, it is a problem that “certainly does not allow NATO representatives to coolly assess the situation.”
Ukraine has today turned the day of the feared Russian invasion, according to Western reports, into a holiday of national unity, a show of patriotism in the face of the Kremlin’s enemy.
“Nobody, only us together will be able to defend our house. Happy Ukraine unity day! East, west, south and north…”, VolodÃmir Zelenski assured in a video intervention.
The Russian invasion will have to wait. The United States marked February 16 in red, but the Ukrainians remain calm amid the information storm about an escalation that has not yet arrived.
Source: Eitb
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