International
US, Russia To Hold Urgent Talks In Geneva Over Ukraine Tensions
- Russia has 100,000 troops at the border, but denies planning to invade
EKO HOT BLOG reports that the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are to hold talks in Geneva later amid mounting fears that Russia could be about to invade Ukraine.
On Thursday Blinken warned Moscow of grave consequences if any of its forces crossed the border.
Russia has 100,000 troops at the border, but denies planning to invade.
Read also: Ukraine Raises Alarm Over Russia’s Siege Near Its Border
President Vladimir Putin has issued demands to the West, including that Ukraine be stopped from joining NATO.
He wants the Western defensive alliance to abandon military exercises and stop sending weapons to eastern Europe, which Moscow sees as its backyard.
Russia seized and annexed the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine in 2014. Ever since, Ukraine’s military has been locked in a war with Russian-backed rebels in areas near the border. The conflict has claimed 14,000 lives and caused at least two million people to flee their homes.
The summit between the top US and Russian diplomats follows moves by Blinken to secure US allies’ backing for sanctions against Moscow.
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After discussions in Berlin with British, French and German officials on Thursday, Blinken said allowing a Russian incursion into Ukraine would “drag us all back to a much more dangerous and unstable time, when this continent, and this city, were divided in two… with the threat of all-out war hanging over everyone’s heads”.
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