Antony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov agreed at a meeting in Geneva to continue diplomatic talks on the crisis with Ukraine and the expansion of NATO. At a time of maximum point of tension due to the concentration of Russian troops along the Ukrainian borders.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have scheduled further contacts next week in an attempt to delay any action. Blinken has promised Lavrov a written response to Moscow’s demands. The White House indicated that does not rule out a meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, if it can help reduce the tension between the two countries.
After a 90-minute meeting in a hotel in the Swiss city on Lake Geneva, Lavrov dismissed Western “hysteria” about Ukraine and reiterated that Moscow has no plans to attack the neighboring country, reported Radio France International.
With the talks between Russia and the United States stalled in Geneva, the United Nations calls for the de-escalation of tensions. “Clearly my message is that there should be no military intervention in this context. I think diplomacy is the way to solve problems. Of course, any invasion from one country to another is against international law, and I hope that this, of course, does not happen in the current circumstances. I am convinced that it will not happen, and I firmly hope that I am right,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
NATO, for its part, has responded that it will not allow a third country to coerce a potential sovereign partner about its intentions to join the Alliance. USA warns: any incursion will have “serious consequences” and the European Union is willing to quickly sanction Russia in the event that it carries out an attack against Ukraine again, as it did in 2014 with “substantial” economic restrictive measures.
This is the scenario left by stalled talks in Geneva, while tensions rise on the Ukraine border.
The invasion of Ukraine is an “imaginary concern”, according to Russia. However, in the east of the country, they are already prepared to defend their homeland and their freedom from the more than one hundred thousand troops that Moscow has deployed on its borders. The city of Kharkiv, just 30 kilometers from Russia, fears that it will be the first target of this conquest. Meanwhile, images released by the Russian Defense Ministry this Friday show military exercises in the west, close to the Ukrainian border.
History of sanctions against Russia
The European Union wants to act quickly and will be ready to sanction Russia immediately in case it carries out an attack against Ukraine again, as it did in 2014 with “substantial” economic restrictive measures.
The US and the EU already imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014, when the Crimean peninsula was annexed with a referendum considered illegal by the international community and held with a military presence on the ground. Now, the United States has promised to impose substantial sanctions on Moscow (some that could even cripple its banking system) if the Kremlin initiates a new military aggression.