Ukraine calls on West to be “vigilant and firm” in Russian talks Ukraine-Russia Crisis News

Kyiv has called on the West to be “vigilant and firm” in its talks with Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his Western partners a day later. avoid causing “panic” on the border over the massive accumulation of Russian troops.

In recent diplomatic maneuvers, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had an interview with French counterpart Yves Le Drian on Saturday.

In talks, they stressed the need to “renounce steps that could exacerbate anxiety” in Ukrainian society and “weaken the financial stability” of the post-Soviet country, according to a statement from Ukraine.

France says it plans to send hundreds of troops as part of NATO’s eastern Romanian ally President Emmanuel Macron’s deployment earlier this month.

Le Drian is expected to visit Ukraine with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock from February 7 to 8, while Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is scheduled to meet with the president and prime minister in Kiev on Tuesday.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin in addition to joining the chorus of Western leaders who are urging him to return to the region before and back.

Russian naval exercises outside Ireland

Meanwhile, Moscow’s ambassador to Ireland has said that his country will not conduct naval exercises in the international waters of the Irish Sea next week after the Irish government requested a relocation of the operation.

Ireland was informed last week that the exercise would take place about 240 kilometers off the south-west coast in its exclusive economic zone, but not in its territorial waters, which was permitted under international law.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said the plans were not welcome, especially at a time when the US and other Western allies feared that Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine after gathering more than 100,000 troops near its borders.

Russia, which denies planning its invasion of its neighbor, has decided to relocate its naval exercises to fishing groups in Dublin and Ireland “as a gesture of goodwill,” Ambassador Yury Filatov said in a statement.

Coveney said on Twitter that he was happy to take the answer.

This week I wrote to my colleague, the Russian Minister of Defense, asking him to reconsider maritime exercises on the Irish coast. This afternoon I received a letter confirming that the Russian exercises will be relocated outside the Irish EEZ. I welcome this answer.

– Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) January 29, 2022

“No offensive plans”

In addition to troops, Russia has gathered equipment and support forces on its border with Ukraine and, more recently, on its northern border with Ukraine.

Western officials say Russia has amassed more air and sea assets in the region, creating a complex threat not seen since the Cold War.

Moscow has demanded broad security guarantees, including that Ukraine will never be allowed to join NATO.

If the West has it discard Russia’s key demands, such as a new membership in the alliance, but a number of areas that see the possibility of negotiating with the Kremlin, have been established.

In a telephone interview with Macron, Putin made it clear this week that Western responses to his demands have fallen short of Russian expectations.

“The US and NATO responses did not take into account Russia’s basic concerns, including preventing NATO deployment,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin’s reading of the call.

He added that the West had it discard He added that the key was for a country not to strengthen its security at the expense of others, adding that Russia would “scrutinize its responses” and “decide on further action”.

According to an aide to Macron, Putin told the French leader in a more than hour-long call that he had “no plans to attack.”

In Washington, however, Biden said he would soon send a small number of U.S. troops as NATO’s presence in Eastern Europe escalated.

If the US already has it tens of thousands of soldiers mostly located in Western Europe.

Ukraine has been moving further and further west since Moscow took over the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and has been promoting a separatist conflict that has cost more than 13,000 lives in the east of the country.

In the face of Russia’s latest construction, some Western allies – US-led – Increased the shipment of weapons that could be used to repel an attack.

On Friday, Ukrainian soldiers dressed in winter camouflage were test-launched in a snowy area in the western part of the country with new “tank killer” missiles sent by Britain.