However, the minister maintained that this “does not mean that there is no threat” and that an attack cannot take place later. It is not the first time, in recent weeks, that the Kiev authorities deny US forecasts of an imminent attack on Ukraine.
United States intelligence sources told various media anonymously that they had information that Russian commandos had been ordered to invade Ukraine.
This information is what pushed the president of the United States, Joe Biden, to say on Friday that he was “convinced” that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had decided to attack Ukraine, the Washington Post reported, attributing this information to anonymous sources.
AFP contacted the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department, who did not confirm or deny this information, which was also transmitted by other US media.
In parallel, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and several of the main Western powers redoubled efforts to avoid a war between the first two countries, while tension increased in the Donbass area, where the self-proclaimed pro-Russian republics denounced artillery attacks .
The presidents of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and from Russia, Vladimir Putin, advocated not exhausting the dialogue in two talks with their colleague from France, Emmanuel Macron, and the president of the United States, Joe Biden, stated that he was willing to speak with his Russian counterpart at “any time” and “any format”.
In conversation with Macron, one hour and 45 minutes, Putin blamed Ukraine for “provocations” by the escalation of the fight against the separatists in the east of that country, the Kremlin reported.
The Russian president called on NATO and the United States to “take seriously” Moscow’s security demands, such as the withdrawal of military infrastructure from Eastern Europe and the veto of Ukraine’s entry into the Atlantic alliance.
Macron and Putin agreed on the convenience of intensifying efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict, the Elysee Palace and the Kremlin reported, in very similar terms, according to the AFP news agency.
In addition, Zelensky promised Macron “not to react to provocations and respect the ceasefire”according to a statement from the French Presidency quoted by the Sputnik agency.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Putin’s “commitments” to Macron “are a hoped-for good sign that he might still be willing to engage in the search for a diplomatic solution,” according to a British government statement.
However, France warned that Macron’s talks with Putin and Zelensky represented one of “the last possible and necessary efforts to avoid a major conflict” in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Biden – who chaired a meeting of the National Security Council today to analyze the situation in Ukraine – remains willing to meet with Putin “at any time, in any format, if that can help prevent a war,” said the secretary of US State, Antony Blinken, to CBS television.
In another interview, with CNN, Blinken said that “in recent months” Russia went from having 50,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine to “more than 150,000” and continues “trying to create a series of provocations that justify aggression” against its neighbor.
“Everything we are seeing suggests that this is very serious, that we are on the verge of an invasion,” added the Secretary of State, for whom the extension of the joint military exercises of Russian and Belarusian troops – which in principle were to conclude today -, announced by Minsk, “only increases the tension”.
Source: Ambito
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