US challenges Russia to make unequivocal statement against invading Ukraine

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken challenged Russia Thursday to make an unequivocal statement that it would not invade Ukraine and to back it up by pulling back troops.

At a UN Security Council meeting on the Ukraine crisis, the top US diplomat laid out in detail how Russia could fabricate an excuse for invading its neighbour.

If it seeks peace, “the Russian government can announce today with no qualification of equivocation or deflection, that Russia will not invade Ukraine, stated plainly to the world,” Blinken said.

“And then demonstrate it by sending your troops, your tanks, your planes, back to their barracks,” Blinken added.

At the meeting, called to discuss the showdown over Ukraine, Blinken said he had invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to meet in Europe for talks next week, even as US officials say a Russian invasion could take place within days.

Citing US intelligence, Blinken laid out a scenario in which he said Moscow could “manufacture” a pretext to invade, would then bomb Ukraine, launch cyberattacks to shut down its institutions, and send tanks and soldiers in to occupy the country.

“Conventional attacks are not all that Russia plans to inflict upon the people of Ukraine. We have information that indicates Russia will target specific groups of Ukrainians,” Blinken said, without providing details.

The top US diplomat acknowledged that many people question US intelligence claims.

“But let me be clear. I am here today not to start a war but to prevent one,” he said.

“The information I presented here is validated by what we’ve seen unfolding in plain sight before our eyes for months.”

At the same meeting, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin blamed the current situation on Kiev’s alleged violations of the 2015 Minsk cease-fire agreement aimed at bringing peace to the breakaway Donbass region.

He also called claims that Russia planned to invade Ukraine “baseless.”

“Ukraine stubbornly refuses to implement the provisions of the Minsk Agreements,” Vershinin told the Council.

He accused Kiev of repeated attacks on the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, causing “thousands of victims.”

“Ukrainian representatives keep coming up with new excuses not to implement their agreements,” he said.

“Attempts to place the blame on Russia are futile and baseless” and aim at “shifting of the blame away from Ukraine,” he said.

Vershinin rejected as “a baseless accusation” claims by the United States and European allies that Moscow is seeking to fabricate a pretext to invade Ukraine.

He said that Blinken’s talk of an invasion scenario was “dangerous” and claimed that some Russian troops were already pulling back from the border after “exercises.”

AFP