Blinken holds Ukraine talks with allies after Biden says attack likely
World
By
Reuters
| Jan 20, 2022
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met European allies in Berlin on Thursday, seeking to present a united front ahead of last-ditch crisis talks with Russia aimed at preventing Moscow from attacking Ukraine.
The top U.S. diplomat has been on a mission to head off war, which will culminate on Friday with a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva. Blinken visited Kyiv on Wednesday and was meeting German, French and British ministers on Thursday in Berlin.
On Wednesday, U.S. ="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/world/article/2001434872/we-want-peace-blinken-to-meet-russian-ukrainian-officials">President Joe Biden gav Gachagua defends budget request to renovate homes, office, and buy new cars Domongole, Chebet power to glory in Betika Iten 15K Road Race Rugby Africa Women's Cup: Poor Kenya Lionesses fail to hunt against South Africa Springboks Businessman denies supplying Sh209 million fake fertiliser CS Murkomen names and shames owner of car in a viral video Human cases of bird flu 'an enormous concern': WHO Trader seeks orders to occupy Sh45m public property vivo V30 5G launching in Kenya: Step into the future with style Biden and other Western leaders have threatened to impose economic sanctions on Russia if it again attacks Ukraine. Russia, already under sanctions since its last invasion, has largely brushed off the threat.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that U.S. warnings of possible disastrous consequences for Russia would not help reduce tensions over Ukraine and could even destabilise the situation further. Blinken vowed in Kyiv on Wednesday that Washington would pursue diplomacy as long as it could. In Berlin, he will give a speech intended to put into context the tensions in Europe and the stakes involved, a senior State Department official said.
Aimed at the European public as well as policymakers, the speech will try to cast the crisis over Ukraine as a critical moment for the rules-based international order, the official said.
U.S.-Russia negotiations last week produced no breakthrough. Germany signalled on Tuesday that it could halt the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia if Moscow invades Ukraine.
Blinken said on Wednesday the ="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/world/article/2001433418/nato-head-to-meet-russian-officials-over-ukraine-crisis">Russian build-up of troops< was taking place with "no provocation, no reason". Russia has also moved troops to Belarus for what it calls joint military exercises, giving it the option of attacking neighbouring Ukraine from the north, east and south.
Eight years ago it seized Crimea and backed separatist forces who took control of large parts of eastern Ukraine.
Russia denies planning a new invasion but says it feels menaced by Kyiv's growing ties with the West. It wants to prevent Ukraine ever joining NATO and for the alliance to pull back troops and weapons from eastern Europe.
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