US Secretary of State hastens visit to Ukraine and Germany
State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement on Tuesday that Blinken would travel to Ukraine and Germany from January 18 to January 20, 2022 (January 28-30).
According to the statement, Blinken will meet in Kiev with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky and Foreign Minister Dmitry Kolba to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Ned Price added that Blinken will discuss in Berlin recent diplomatic relations with Russia and joint efforts to prevent a possible further Russian invasion of Ukraine, including the readiness of allies and partners to impose far-reaching consequences and severe economic costs on Russia. کرد.
According to a US State Department spokeswoman, Blinken will meet with German Foreign Minister Annalina Bairbock. Other programs on the US Secretary of State’s agenda include a meeting with the Transatlantic Quartet, which includes Britain and France.
This week, Blinken’s trip to Europe comes after the West’s diplomatic talks with Russia last week, which failed to reach an agreement.
Blinken’s visit to Ukraine is the latest visit by US officials to the country. On Monday, a delegation of US senators traveled to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky. William Burns, the head of the CIA’s spy agency, also traveled to Ukraine last week to meet with the president.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the US claim that Russia might invade Ukraine a lie.
Lavrov told a joint news conference with Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grilich Radman on Monday that the United States was preparing Russia for provocative action in the Donbas region (eastern Ukraine) in order to pave the way for an attack. Ukraine, the information is completely incorrect.
He added: “Let us not forget that American officials have repeatedly spoken about the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine and have made baseless allegations in this regard.”
Asked if the United States had drawn up 18 scenarios for the escalation of the situation in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Minister said sarcastically that the US State Department would most likely hold a contest to prepare scenarios for the escalation of the situation in Ukraine.
He continued: “I think the United States has 17 intelligence agencies and special services, and these organizations, in addition to the US State Department, may have numbered 18.”
According to IRNA, US Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, in an interview with the Financial Times, claimed that the major cyber attack on Ukraine on Friday was “part of a way Russia has used it before.”
“I do not intend to explain 18 different scenarios,” Nuland said. Our commitment and dialogue with our allies is that if Russia does this in any way, we will impose severe sanctions on it.
Russia-US strategic security talks on January 10, 2022 (January 20) and the NATO-Russia Council meeting on January 12 (December 22) and the meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on January 13 (December 23) are among the measures to reduce It was held from bilateral tensions.
The Donbass region is located in the east of Ukraine with a Russian population. Since 2014, the Russians have established two self-proclaimed republics, Donetsk and Luhansk, and formed local governments independent of the Ukrainian government. Russia has repeatedly called on the Ukrainian government to negotiate with representatives of the two regions. An agreement has been reached and the dispute has been resolved, but Kiev refuses to accuse Moscow of supporting and encouraging separatists and negotiating with representatives of these regions.
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