DIPLOMATS WARN RUSSIA AGAINST INVASION
The top diplomats for the world’s wealthiest large democracies warned Russia on Sunday of “massive consequences” and “severe costs” should it invade Ukraine or continue military aggressions near its border.
The foreign ministers for the Group of 7 urged Russia to pull back from the tense border standoff and made clear that any effort to negotiate or otherwise avoid confrontation would be welcome.
“Any use of force to change borders is strictly prohibited under international law,” they said in a statement. “Russia should be in no doubt that further military aggression against Ukraine would have massive consequences and severe cost in response.”
Their statement largely echoed earlier admonishments by Western officials over the past week after Russia massed as many as 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s eastern, northern and southern borders. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden himself warned President Vladimir Putin of unprecedented and painful economic and other sanctions should Russia move in force into Ukraine and called for de-escalation and diplomacy.
But he has promised Putin some sort of diplomatic discussion of European security, which has already disturbed some U.S. allies.
Putin has laid out a set of Russian goals that seem impossible to meet, including a written NATO guarantee withdrawing a 2008 NATO pledge to take Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance at some point in the future (a demand already rejected by Washington) and a promise not to deploy weaponry to countries bordering Russia or to hold military drills within a certain distance from Russia.
Sunday’s warning also included Japan among the countries now condemning Russia’s military buildup, and it was issued separate from the ministers’ summary of a host of issues discussed — including complicated relations with China and Iran and the ramping up of distribution of the coronavirus vaccine — after two days of meetings in Liverpool, in northern England.
“What we have shown this weekend is that the world’s largest economies are united,” the British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, told reporters in Liverpool. “We have sent a powerful signal to our adversaries and our allies.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, and he added that deterring Russian aggression was about “the basic rules of the road of the international system.”
The Group of 7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — account for about half of the global economy. Diplomats representing the European Union also attended the talks.
Intelligence from the U.S. indicated that Russia’s military had developed a war plan that envisioned as many as 175,000 troops pouring across Ukraine’s border — a force that Ukraine’s military, despite U.S.-provided equipment and training, would have little ability to stop.