The United States assured this Sunday that everything indicates that Russia is “about” to invade Ukraine, in light of the hostilities in eastern Ukraine and the decision of the Russian and Belarusian governments to extend their military exercises.
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, affirmed that the events of this weekend point to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, launching his “manual” for an attack on Ukrainealthough he insisted that there is still time to opt for the diplomatic route.
“Everything we are seeing indicates that this is completely serious, that they are about to invade,” said the head of US diplomacy in an interview with the CNN television network.
Blinken assured that he is more concerned about the possibility of an invasion now that Russia and Belarus have decided to extend the inspection time of the forces that have participated in their military exercises beyond this Sunday, when they were scheduled to end.
Antony Blinken stated that the events of this weekend point to the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his “manual” for an attack on Ukraine.
“(That) means that the manual that I detailed before the UN Security Council last week has been launched, by which Russia would try to create a series of provocations to justify an aggression against Ukraine,” he stressed.
“As we have described, all the steps leading up to the actual invasion seem to be taking place,” he added.
The foreign minister stressed that the US president, Joe Biden is willing to talk to his Russian counterpart “at any time and in any format to prevent a war.”
“Until the tanks are rolling and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from doing this,” he added.
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Blinken added that he himself maintains his intention to meet next week in Europe with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “unless Russia invades” Ukraine before then.
As for the threat of sanctions against Moscow, Blinken expressed his disagreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who called on the West on Saturday to impose such punishment on Russia now, and not after an invasion.
“The purpose of sanctions is to try to dissuade Russia from going to war”, argued the head of Foreign Affairs, opining that if they are imposed now, “that deterrent is exhausted”, while if a list of possible restrictions is made public, “Russia will be allowed to plan to counteract them”. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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