Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Russia and the US are likely to hold meeting in January for talks over Ukraine. Vladimir Putin has said talks will be in Geneva for over Ukraine, and were essential to protect Moscow.
Speaking in Moscow, Russia’s president welcomed a positive reaction from the US to two sets of draft proposals on European security that Moscow had published, which he said the sides would discuss at bilateral talks early next year.
“Our American partners are telling us they’re ready to start this discussion, these negotiations,” Putin said. “Representatives from both sides have been appointed. I hope that this is the way the situation will play out”, he said.
The proposals include a request that Nato pledge to stop admitting any members from the former Soviet Union — chiefly Ukraine — and that it curb military deployments. The US has said several of these proposals are non-negotiable but that it is open to discussing other demands made by the Kremlin as it seeks ways to deter Russia from military action.
As part of the forthcoming bilateral talks with the US, Putin is demanding that NATO, the post-World War II Western military alliance, deny possible membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet satellite countries, while curbing its military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe.
The Russian leader contended that if the US and NATO place missile systems in Ukraine, it will take only minutes for them to reach Moscow. “Russia has been forced to respond at every step,” Putin contended. “The situation kept worsening and worsening, deteriorating and deteriorating. And here we are today, in a situation when we’re forced to resolve it somehow.”
US has warned allies in Europe that Moscow has been massing about 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border with an intention to launch a possible invasion, which the Kremlin first denied.
Oleg Nikolenko, Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, denied any intention of starting a military offensive on Donbas, where the slow-burning conflict has killed more than 14,000 people.
A senior US administration official has said that Washington would engage in diplomacy as soon as early January, but that the agenda would be broader than the proposals published by Moscow. The official also reiterated the threat of “massive sanctions” on Russia if it invaded Ukraine.
Biden has ruled out a ground deployment of US troops in the event of a Russian attack on Ukraine, but Washington has been sending small arms and ammunition to the Kyiv government, along with Javelin missiles the US says Ukraine should use only for defensive purposes.
