The German Chancellor has moved Monday in Kiev, then Ira Tuesday in Moscow, in order to continue diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis around Ukraine.
Le Monde with AFP
The tension does not fall near the Ukrainian border, at the heart of a serious international crisis, one of the worst in Europe since the end of the cold war. Accusing Moscow not to share information about the massive trips of Russian troops, Kiev demanded, on Monday, February 14, an urgent meeting with Russia and the other countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) While the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was expected in the Ukrainian capital.
In a statement broadcast Sunday night, the head of the Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmyro Kuleba, said Russia had ignored a request from Ukraine concerning the Vienna document, a text of the OSCE that promotes measures. transparency between the armed forces of its fifty-seven member countries, of which the United States is also part of.
“We go to the next step. Ukraine convenes a meeting with Russia and all Member States (OSCE) in the forty-eight hours to evoke the strengthening and displacement of Russian troops along Our border and occupied Crimea, “Kuleba said. Russia “must honor its military transparency commitments to reduce tensions and strengthen the safety of all participating states,” he continued.
The Kremlin did not want to say Monday if he accepted such a meeting, repeating that it was “movements of Russian soldiers in the territory of Russia”. “There are any movements of the armed forces of Ukraine in the border regions [of Russia] and in the border area of the territories of the self-proclaimed republics” controlled by Prorussian separatists supported by Moscow, has noted the carrier. Word of the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov. A spokesman for the OSCE’s rotating presidency, currently insured by Poland, announced on Twitter that the emergency meeting requested by Kiev would take place on Tuesday in Vienna, without specifying if Russia would take part.
“heavy consequences”
Since November, this country has massaged more than 100,000 soldiers at the Ukrainian Eastern borders, aroused the lively concern of Westerners, who fear a new military operation against Kiev after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, in parallel with the conflict which Hard for eight years with separatists in eastern Ukraine. Washington repeated Sunday that Russia could attack Kiev “at any time”.
Moscow denies any aggressive forility towards Ukraine, but binds de-escalation to a series of requirements, including the assurance that this country will never enter NATO. A condition that Westerners judge unacceptable. This weekend, the tensions are still mounted by a notch, many Western countries called their nationals to leave Ukraine or started to evacuate their embassies.
In a new diplomatic attempt to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine and defeating this Russian-western crisis that destabilizes European security, the German Chancellor arrived in Kiev Monday to meet the Ukrainian president before traveling to Moscow. A common press conference is scheduled at the beginning of the afternoon with President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We are waiting for Moscow Immediate signs of de-escalation,” said Scholz in a tweet, still threatening Russia of “heavy consequences in the event of new military aggression”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, called Monday Vladimir Putin to recoil the “precipice” in Ukraine, estimating the situation “very, very dangerous” with a possible Russian invasion “within forty-eight hours to come”. “It’s always time for President Putin to back down,” said the leader on British television. “We call everyone to dialogue (…) To avoid what would be a catastrophic mistake,” he added.