The United States announced Thursday that it had convened a public meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation on the Russia-Ukraine border, after Moscow said “there is not much reason for optimism” in the responses of Washington and NATO to their proposals on the crisis.
The call for the Security Council meeting, for next Monday, was reported by the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in a statement in which she stated that the reason is “the threatening behavior of Russia against Ukraine and the accumulation of Russian troops on the borders” between those two countries.
In the diplomat’s opinion, “the full attention of the Council is needed now” because it is “a matter of crucial importance for international peace and security.”
“As we continue our relentless pursuit of diplomacy to reduce tensions in the face of this grave threat to European and global peace and security, the UN Security Council is a crucial venue for diplomacy,” he stressed, according to the AFP and Sputnik news agencies.
The call to the UN Security Council came at a time when President Joe Biden was talking by phone with his Ukrainian colleague, Volodimir Zelensky, about “coordinated diplomatic efforts” to address the crisis, according to a brief statement from the House. White.
In addition, it came a day after Ukrainian and Russian diplomats agreed to maintain the ceasefire and resume talks in two weeksat a meeting held in Paris in the context of the Normandy Quartet, which also includes Germany and France.
But it also came hours after Russia said “there is not much reason for optimism” in the written responses the United States and NATO sent yesterday on its proposals on European security, although it clarified that it will take “some time” to analyze them and indicated that “there are still prospects for a dialogue.”
The White House and NATO sent their proposals to Moscow on Wednesday aimed at avoiding what they consider an imminent Russian invasion, in response to a document in which the Kremlin urged Washington to reciprocally renounce the deployment of nuclear weapons outside the national territory and the Atlantic alliance, not to expand its military force in the former Soviet republics, especially Ukraine.
“All the documents are now held by the president (Vladimir Putin); it will take time to analyze them, we are not going to rush to the conclusions, but there are not many reasons for optimism”, said the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, who added that there are still possibilities for a dialogue, because that is in the interests of all parties.
“All these papers are in the hands of the president,” Peskov reiterated to the press, adding that the president has personally familiarized himself with their content.
in tune, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that “there was no positive answer to the main question”, that is, that NATO does not extend to Ukrainewhich was explicitly rejected on Wednesday by the United States and the Atlantic alliance.
“The main issue is our clear position on the unacceptable nature of the continuation of NATO’s expansion to the east and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russian territory,” Lavrov detailed, denouncing again the “unbridled expansion of the alliance” despite promises made to Moscow in the 1990s.
Beyond these differences, Russia and Ukraine agreed on Wednesday at a meeting in Paris to keep the diplomatic channel open, in a dialogue that also included representatives from Germany and France.
Zelenski considered the meeting in the French capital “positive” for “its constructive nature and the desire to continue the substantial negotiations within 15 days in Berlin”.
“The first priority is to reach a stable and unconditional ceasefire in Donbass,” a region in eastern Ukraine that, like Crimea, has been partially controlled since 2014 by Russian separatists sponsored by Moscow, he added.
He also wished that “in the shortest possible time” a summit of heads of state be held, since yesterday’s meeting brought together his diplomatic advisers.
Apart from that multilateral proposal, the bilateral one that the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will maintain at the White House on February 7 was confirmed.
“The leaders will discuss their shared commitment to both ongoing diplomacy and joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine,” said the president’s press secretary, Jen Psaki.
Despite the diplomatic progress, the possibility of moving forward with sanctions remains latent and, in this sense, Germany today targeted a central point of its relations with Moscow: the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
“We are working on a strong package of sanctions” with Western allies that covers various aspects, “including Nord Stream 2,” said the head of diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock before the Chamber of Deputies.
This recently completed and not yet inaugurated project will double the shipment of Russian gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea and was built despite the disagreement of several countries, including the United States, who believe that it will be used by the Kremlin to increase its influence over Europe. .
In the conflict zone and despite the agreed ceasefire, the leader of the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, asked the Russian government to send “modern weapons” to the area in order to “defend” itself against Ukrainian forces. .
His words came after Russian deputies urged the Kremlin to supply weapons to areas occupied by pro-Russian militias amid rising tensions, according to The Moscow Times.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmitri Kuleba, also did not rule out a conflict and assured that his priority is that Russia, which according to the West concentrated some 100,000 soldiers on the border, fails in the plan to “destabilize” his country.
“Our main priority is that Russia does not succeed in its plan to destabilize Ukraine, but we are prepared for any scenario,” Kuleba told a joint news conference in Copenhagen with his Danish counterpart Jeppe Kofod.
