U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has agreed to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov next week because “there will be no further Russian aggression in Ukraine,” the State Department said on Thursday. Blinken initially suggested meeting Lavrov in Europe next week after State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States believed “the only responsible way to resolve this crisis is through diplomacy and dialogue.”

“The Russians have responded to the date proposed late next week, and if Russia does not invade Ukraine further, we will accept it,” Price tweeted. “If they invade in the next few days, this would show that they never took diplomacy seriously.”

Earlier on Thursday, Blinken told the U.N. Security Council that the U.S. did not know exactly how a Russian invasion would play out, but outlined possible plans for an invasion that the world can expect in the coming days. He claimed that Russia was planning to make up excuses for the violence or outrageous charges against the Ukrainian government that the Kremlin would probably blame.

“We don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like. It could be a so-called ‘terrorist’ bombing fabricated in Russia, a fabricated mass grave discovery, a phased drone strike on civilians, or a fake – even It’s real – a chemical weapons attack,” the top US diplomat said.

Blinken added that the Russian government could “dramatically convene” an emergency meeting to address “human provocations” and issued a statement declaring that Moscow must respond to protect Russian citizens or ethnic Russians in Ukraine.

According to Blinken, the next phase of the invasion plan will include dropping missiles and bombs on Ukraine and weakening key Ukrainian institutions through cyberattacks.

“After that, Russian tanks and soldiers will advance to key targets that have been identified and mapped in detailed plans. We believe these targets include the Russian capital – Ukraine’s capital Kiev, a city of 2.8 million people,” he warned.

Complete News Source : Hindustan Times