7 hours agoBlinken: Russia faces massive consequences if aggression on Ukraine continues
Periskopi(4 years ago)
(4 years ago)US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia faces “massive consequences” if it chooses the “course of aggression “with Ukraine, urging Moscow to engage in diplomacy to end the crisis along the Ukrainian border. Blinken said Washington still doesn't know what the Kremlin's ultimate goal is for [...]
Blinken said Washington still doesn't know what the Kremlin's ultimate goal is for Ukraine, or whether its demands to rewrite Europe's existing security structure.
I think the only person who can tell us what the ultimate purpose of the Kremlin is [rus, Vladimir] Putin. I don't think anyone else knows. And he, at this point, may not know because what he did in the past, and what I believe he promotes with the way he approaches them, is to create as many opportunities as possible. And they run the gamma”, Blinken said about the REL.
The American top diplomat spoke a day after the United States officially released the written answer to Russia's ultimatums, which was made public last month in the form of two drafts.
Russian demands have been associated with the delocation of over 100,000 Russian troops in regions near the borders of Ukraine, where some of Russia's most sophisticated military equipment has been deployed.
The two documents present a large-scale restructuring of Europe's security structure and call for a mortorium on NATO enlargement to the former Soviet republics, such as Georgia and Ukraine. Also required is the withdrawal of troops and weapons from locations east of Europe before the military alliance makes its first major expansion after the Cold War in 1999.
The proposals, which also call for new restrictions on the deployment of nuclear weapons to Europe and other related issues, have been widely met with disagreement from the United States and European allies.
US diplomats, NATO, Russia and European states have held three round talks in Geneva, Brussels and Vienna earlier this month. The talks aimed at averting a vast invasion of Ukraine from Russia.
Blinken downplayed any dyvergence of thoughts or conclusions between the US and Ukraine on the seriousness of the Russian threat.
We're going to have to do everything we're doing based on facts, based on what we're seeing, so we can make sure they prepare for any possibility. We're doing this in close consultation with the Government of Ukraine”
