International diplomacy went into overdrive on Monday as clouds of war loomed over Ukraine, with the French and Russian presidents due to meet in Moscow and the German chancellor headed to the White House to meet U.S. leader Joe Biden.
Also on Monday, the foreign ministers of Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria are expected to meet in Kiev, downplaying dire warnings from the United States that Moscow has stepped up preparations for a massive invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. officials say the Kremlin has amassed 110,000 troops on the border with its pro-Western neighbors, but intelligence assessments have yet to determine whether President Vladimir Putin actually decided to invade.
They say Russia is on schedule to muster a large enough army — about 150,000 troops — to conduct a full-scale invasion by mid-February.
Such a force would be able to capture the capital, Kiev, within 48 hours, killing up to 50,000 civilians, 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 10,000 Russian soldiers, and triggering a refugee flow of up to 5 million people, mainly into Poland, officials said. they added.
In addition to potential human costs, Ukraine fears further damage to its already struggling economy.
If Moscow attacks Ukraine, it could face retaliation for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline — which would double gas supplies from Russia to Germany — and Berlin has threatened to block it.
Russia is seeking assurances from NATO that Ukraine will not join the alliance and wants the bloc to withdraw its troops from the Eastern European member states.
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Moscow has denied it plans to invade Ukraine, and a presidential adviser in Kiev said the chances of a diplomatic solution to the crisis remained “significantly higher than the threat of further escalation”.
In an attempt to calm tensions on Twitter, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said: “Don’t believe doomsday predictions. Different capitals have different situations, but Ukraine is ready for any development.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, will lead efforts to defuse the crisis in Moscow on Monday and in Kiev on Tuesday.
He is expected to push through a stalled peace plan to deal with the worsening conflict in eastern Ukraine with Russia-backed separatists.
The trip will be a political gamble for Macron, who faces a re-election challenge in April.
Also on Monday, German Chancellor Olaf Schultz will meet Biden in Washington.
Biden reacted to the Russian troop buildup, offering 3,000 U.S. troops to support NATO’s eastern flank and promising to arrive in Poland on Sunday.
But U.S. National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan told Fox News on Sunday that Biden “will not send troops to start a war in Ukraine or a war with Russia.”
“We have sent troops to Europe to defend NATO territory,” he said.
Complete News Source : NDTV
