Blinken says Russia is planning “aggressive moves” against Ukraine Conflict News

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blink has said Washington will be “ready to act” if Russia invades Ukraine.

Russia’s Secretary of State Antony Blink has warned that Russia intends to carry out “major aggressive movements” against Ukraine in the wake of tensions between Washington and Moscow. continue to assemble before a summit this week.

After a meeting of NATO ministers in Riga, Latvia, on Wednesday, Blinken said the United States was “deeply concerned that Russia has made evidence of plans for major aggressive movements against Ukraine.”

Ukraine has blamed Russia the deployment of heavy armored vehicles, electronic warfare systems and tens of thousands of troops across the country’s border – the second largest construction of the Russian army so far this year.

Blinken told reporters that the United States did not know whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had “decided to invade” Ukraine. “We know that he will be able to do that in the short term if he decides to do so,” he said.

Blinken’s comments come a day earlier than expected to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a summit with the European Security and Cooperation Organization in Sweden on Thursday, and behind the Washington-led talks on Ukraine.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, also spoke he said earlier Wednesday A 27-year-old U.S. diplomat has been expelled from the U.S. embassy for allegedly retaliating against Russian diplomats.

However efforts made at the beginning of the year To ease tensions between Washington and Moscow, there is growing pressure on relations between concerns about the accumulation of Russian troops near Western Ukraine.

In 2014, Moscow seized Crimea from Kyiv, and Russian-backed separatists seized part of eastern Ukraine, sparking the ongoing conflict.

Earlier this week, Putin told a Moscow forum that the red line in Ukraine was not expected to surpass any expansion of NATO military infrastructure. On Wednesday, the Russian president stressed that the country will seek “reliable and long-term security guarantees.”

“In a dialogue with the US and its allies, we will insist on working out specific agreements that would rule out any other movement to the east of NATO and deploy weapons systems that threaten us near Russian territory,” Putin said.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kiev needed direct talks with Moscow to end tensions and halt the country’s eastern conflict.

Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on the Transatlantic Security Alliance to form a “deterrent package” and increase military cooperation To prevent Russian attacks on Ukraine.

Russian officials have previously told Moscow Attitude towards Ukraine it is a mere defense and has accused Kyiv of trying to recapture areas of force that pro-Russian rebels have in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have denied the allegations.

On Wednesday, Blinken warned that President Joe Biden’s administration had made it clear to Russia that if the EU continued on a “confrontational path”, the United States would “respond firmly, including with some of the most influential economic measures we have rejected.”

He did not elaborate on what specific measures could be taken, but said they would have “long-term and lasting consequences”.

There is “tremendous solidarity” within NATO if Russia invades Ukraine for strong measures, Blinken also said. “If Russia rejects diplomacy and invades Ukraine again, we will be ready to act.”

Meanwhile, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that his country will stay with Moscow in any conflict with Kiev. “I will do my best to make Ukraine our own. It’s our Ukraine, ”he said.