Tensions with Russia grow over Ukraine
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met face-to-face with his Russian counterpart on Thursday to demand the Kremlin pull back troops from the border with Ukraine, as tensions and suspicions grow in a confrontation over Ukraine’s increasingly close ties with NATO and the West.
Russia on one side and Ukraine, the U.S. and its NATO allies on the other traded fresh accusations and threats. The West, fearing that Moscow could invade Ukraine, threatened the toughest sanctions yet if it launches an attack. Russia, seeing new U.S. and European support for Ukraine’s military, sternly warned that any presence of NATO troops and weapons on Ukrainian soil represents a “red line.”
Fears that Russia would invade its neighbor or seek to undermine the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have dominated Blinken’s travels this week to meet with European allies.
Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Thursday on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Stockholm, Sweden.
“The United States and our allies and partners are deeply concerned by evidence that Russia has made plans for significant aggressive moves against Ukraine, including efforts to destabilize Ukraine from within and largescale military operations,” Blinken told reporters.
During his meeting with Blinken, Lavrov charged that the West was “playing with fire” by denying Russia a say in any further NATO expansion into countries of the former Soviet Union. Zelenskyy has pushed for Ukraine to join the alliance, which holds out the promise of membership but hasn’t set a timeline.
“I want to make it crystal clear: Turning our neighbors into a bridgehead for confrontation with Russia, the deployment of NATO forces in the regions strategically important for our security, is categorically unacceptable,” Lavrov said he told the OSCE meeting.
The United States and its European allies have struggled to warn Russia off any military action and reaffirm support for Ukraine without moving so forcefully as to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a pretext to invade.
Ukraine and the U.S. estimate that Russia has at least 90,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, while Russia charged this week that Ukraine has amassed about 125,000 troops, or about half its military, near the rebel-controlled areas in the east.
Addressing the OSCE meeting, Blinken urged Russia “to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity to de-escalate, reverse the recent troop buildup” and “return forces to normal peaceful positions.”
The Kremlin has voiced concern that Ukraine may use force to reclaim control of the rebel east. And adding to the tensions, the head of a Russian-allied, self-proclaimed separatist republic in the east appeared on Russian state television to say that he could turn to Moscow for military assistance if the region faced a Ukrainian attack.
Ukrainian officials have denied an intention to reclaim the rebel regions by force.