Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West on Friday not to sow “panic” over tensions with Moscow, accused of preparing an invasion of Ukraine, while demanding a gesture from Russia proving that it was not going not attack.
His statement came as Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron agreed in a telephone interview on the “need for de-escalation”, according to the French presidency.
More than a hundred thousand Russian soldiers have been deployed on the Ukrainian borders since the end of 2021, a sign according to Washington and several Western capitals that an invasion could be imminent.
“The likelihood of the attack exists, it has not disappeared and it has not been less severe in 2021”, but “we do not see an escalation greater than that which existed” last year, however declared Friday Mr. Zelensky, during a press conference for the foreign media.
Internal risk
“We don’t need this panic,” he stressed, while calling on Russia to “take steps to prove” that it is not going to attack.
“The greatest risk for Ukraine” currently is “the destabilization of the situation inside the country”, estimated the Ukrainian president.
Russia denies any plan of invasion, but considers itself threatened by the expansion of NATO for 20 years and by Western support for Ukraine.
It therefore conditioned de-escalation on the end of the policy of enlargement of the Atlantic Alliance, in particular to Ukraine, and on the return of Western military deployments to the 1997 borders.
The status quo
The United States and NATO formally rejected these requests on Wednesday.
“The responses of the United States and NATO did not take into account the fundamental concerns of Russia,” said the Kremlin in a press release devoted to the interview between MM. Putin and Macron.
“The key question has been ignored, namely how the United States and its allies intend (…) to implement the principle that no one should strengthen their security at the expense of other countries”, argued the master of the Kremlin, according to the same source.
According to the Elysée, the two leaders nevertheless agreed on the “need for de-escalation” and a continuation of “dialogue” in the Ukrainian crisis.
“President Putin has not expressed any offensive intentions”, underlined the French presidency.
gas pipeline
The Europeans and the Americans have promised fierce and unprecedented sanctions in the event of an attack on Ukraine.
On the table, the strategic Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany or even Russian access to transactions in dollars, the queen currency of international trade.
Washington and the European Union said in a joint statement on Friday that they were working to supply “additional volumes of natural gas” for Europe, in order to deal with a possible backlash from a “new Russian invasion of Ukraine”.
The United States also seized the UN Security Council on Thursday, calling for a meeting on Monday because of the “clear threat” posed in their eyes by Russia to “international peace and security”.
Moscow raises its voice
For his part, the Russian Foreign Minister stressed in the morning that Russia did not want “no war” and preferred the “path of diplomacy”, but that it was ready to defend its interests.
“We will not allow (…) our interests to be grossly flouted, ignored,” insisted Sergei Lavrov.
Moscow had warned that a rejection of its demands would result in widespread retaliation, with no further details.
In the evening, Russian diplomacy announced that it would ban entry into Russia of representatives of law enforcement, legislative and executive bodies of certain EU countries who are “personally responsible for the spread of anti-Russian policy”.
Prominent Russian lawmakers have proposed that Russia recognize the independence of pro-Russian separatist territories in Ukraine and arm them.
The Kremlin is already considered the instigator of this conflict in eastern Ukraine, which was triggered in 2014 shortly after the Russian annexation of Ukrainian Crimea and in the wake of a pro-Western revolution in Kiev.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp