WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States had seen no evidence of a significant Russian withdrawal of its military forces from Ukraine’s borders, despite Moscow’s claim.
“Unfortunately there’s a difference between Russia says, and what it does and what we’re seeing is no meaningful pullback,” he said.
“On the contrary, we continue to see forces, especially forces that would be in the vanguard of any renewed aggression against Ukraine, continuing to be at the border, to mass at the border.”
Blinken called the threat of an invasion “real” and reiterated Washington’s call for Russia to de-escalate the situation.
“President Putin has put in place the capacity to act on very short notice,” the top US diplomat said.
“He can pull the trigger — he could pull it today. He could pull it tomorrow. He could pull it next week. The forces are there if he wants to renew aggression against Ukraine.”
Blinken urged diplomacy to resolve the situation, but added: “We’re prepared for diplomacy. We’re prepared for aggression. We’re prepared either way.”
Separately, the United States strongly condemned a Russian parliament proposal to recognize Ukraine’s two separatist republics as independent.
Such a move would “constitute a gross violation of international law,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Russia’s parliament on Tuesday voted to urge President Vladimir Putin to recognize the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as “sovereign and independent states” amid soaring tension with the West over Moscow’s troop build-up.
“Kremlin approval of this appeal would amount to the Russian government’s wholesale rejection of its commitments under the Minsk agreements,” Blinken said, referring to a landmark 2014 deal meant to settle the Ukraine conflict.
He added that such a decision would undermine Moscow’s “stated commitment to continue to engage in diplomacy to achieve a peaceful resolution of this crisis, and necessitate a swift and firm response from the United States in full coordination with our allies and partners.”
In another development, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is looking to step up efforts to strengthen its eastern flank, as he warned the threat from Russia had become the “new normal in Europe”.
“Moscow has made it clear that it is prepared to contest the fundamental principles that have underpinned our security for decades and to do so by using force. I regret to say that this is the new normal in Europe,” Stoltenberg said
after a meeting of NATO defence ministers in BRUSSELS.
“Today, ministers decided to develop options to further strengthen NATO’s deterrence and defence, including to consider establishing new NATO battle groups in central and south-eastern Europe,” he said.
He added that “NATO military commanders will now work on the details and report back within weeks”.
NATO allies have already rushed to bolster the alliance’s eastern flank with thousands of troops and hardware as fears have soared that Moscow could be about to invade its pro-Western neighbour Ukraine.
NATO — revitalised by the latest crisis after its catastrophic departure from Afghanistan — is seeking to reassure nervous eastern allies in the longer-term.
The alliance is eyeing deploying new battle groups in Romania and Bulgaria on the Black Sea, while Hungary and Slovakia have also been mooted.
France has offered to lead the new deployment in Romania.
Diplomats say NATO is also looking at bolstering battle groups already in the Baltics and Poland — currently numbering around 5,000 troops in total — that were deployed in 2017 in response to Russia’s seizure of Crimea. — NNN-AGENCIES
