The United States and Russia are trying to avert another devastating conflict in Europe as fears rise that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened a hastily arranged visit to Kyiv as he and other administration officials step up warnings about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine."I can't say whether we are on the right track or not," he told reporters."We will understand that when we receive the U.S. written response to all of our proposals.""We don't expect to resolve our differences here today.
The U.S. and its NATO allies have flatly rejected those demands and say that Russian President Vladimir Putin knows they are nonstarters. They have said they're open to less dramatic moves. But he said he also wanted to use the opportunity to share directly with Lavrov some"concrete ideas to address some of the concerns that you have raised, as well as the deep concerns that many of us have about Russia's actions."
Adding to its repeated verbal warnings to Russia, the United States stepped up sanctions on Thursday. The U.S. Treasury Department slapped new measures on four Ukrainian officials. Blinken said the four were at the center of a Kremlin effort begun in 2020 to damage Ukraine's ability to"independently function."
The Russian Foreign Ministry mocked those statements, saying they must have been prepared by an Orwellian"Ministry of Truth," and Lavrov caustically dismissed them. Blinken has taken pains to stress U.S. unity with its allies in opposition to a possible Russian invasion, something that took an apparent hit earlier this week when U.S. President Joe Biden drew widespread criticism for saying retaliation for Russian aggression in Ukraine would depend on the details and that a"minor incursion" could prompt discord among Western allies.
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