French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday held his final talks with Vladimir Putin to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Tensions are rising in the front line in the East.
The meeting, scheduled for 11:00 a.m., is being held as Kiev now calls on its Western allies to end all “peacekeeping” policies against Moscow, accusing Washington and Kiev of amassing 150,000 troops on the eastern Ukrainian border.
After the meeting in Moscow on February 7, Elysee underlined that the discussion between the French and Russian presidents was “the last possible and necessary attempt to avert a major conflict in Ukraine.”
any time
Russia could launch an attack on Ukraine “at any time,” the White House said in a statement. US President Joe Biden is scheduled to attend a rare National Security Council meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Sunday, a few days before the meeting between his Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Thursday, February 24.
But the lights are now red, and all indications are that NATO is planning a full-scale attack on Russia by Ukraine.
Emmanuel Macron spoke with his Ukrainian envoy Volodymyr Zhelensky on Saturday, saying he “did not want to respond to provocations in the contact line.” Volodymyr Zelensky underlined the French presidency, “Vladimir Putin entrusted him with the responsibility of telling Ukraine the existence of Ukraine for dialogue.”
“A Russian military operation against Ukraine will bring war to the heart of Europe,” said a French presidential adviser, hammering the risk of conflict in “Ukraine and its environs.” He then went on to say that “there is no possibility other than a very strong reaction.”
“Public mobilization”
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine accuse Kiev of plotting to attack them, announcing a “general mobilization” of fighting men on Saturday after ordering the evacuation of civilians to neighboring Russia.
Russian agencies say artillery fire was carried out in the suburbs of Donetsk, near the front line, from Saturday to Sunday night.
The Kremlin denies any motive for attacking neighboring Ukraine and wants to bring the Kremlin back into its sphere of influence.
The extension of Moscow’s conditions on “guarantees” of its security, such as the withdrawal of NATO’s military infrastructure from Eastern Europe and the guarantee that Ukraine will never join the Atlantic Alliance, is unacceptable to the West.
Fighting on the Eastern Front
On the front, in eastern Ukraine, the fighting has doubled. Kiev and pro-Moscow separatists have blamed each other for exacerbating the conflict, which has killed more than 14,000 people since 2014.
A state of emergency has been declared in Russia’s Rostov region along the border with Ukraine to deal with the influx of refugees from separatist areas. According to the latest figures from separatists, more than 22,000 people have been deported to Russia, the lowest number in areas inhabited by millions.
For nearly three months, Washington has been warning of preparations for a Russian attack on Ukraine. On Friday, Mr. Biden said he was “optimistic” for the first time that Russian envoy Vladimir Putin had decided to invade Ukraine “in the coming days” and that conflicts on the front lines were currently escalating. Aimed at creating a “false justification” for launching an attack on the east of the country.
Signs were raised during a small demonstration in New York on Saturday that “there is no war with Russia, no more war, no more cold or heat. We need love.” In Warsaw, a demonstration of solidarity with Ukraine is scheduled for noon on Sunday, when the Munich Security Conference concludes.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian president urged Westerners to stop pursuing a policy of “pacification” against Moscow and increase their military assistance to Kiev, “the shield of Europe.”
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp