Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday ruled out the possibility of a war with Ukraine, worried for several days about a reinforcement of Russian troops at its borders.
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“Of course, no one is going down the road of war, and no one accepts the possibility of such a war,” Peskov said in an interview with the public broadcaster Rossya 1, broadcast in the evening at Moscow, but extracts of which have been made public.
“Nobody accepts either the possibility of a civil war in Ukraine”, he added, assuring that “Russia will not remain indifferent to the fate of the Russian speakers living in the south-east” of Ukraine, where a war has been going on since 2014 between Kiev troops and pro-Russian separatists.
According to Moscow, this war, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives since its outbreak, is a Ukrainian civil war, as Kiev and the West see obvious Russia’s widely documented military, political and financial support for the separatists.
In recent days, Kiev and several Western capitals have criticized Moscow for massing troops on the Ukrainian border and the annexed Crimean peninsula, while deadly incidents with the separatists are almost daily.
According to Ukraine, the Kremlin could be looking for a pretext to launch a major military operation.
The Kremlin has not denied these troop movements, but assures not to threaten anyone, accusing Kiev on the contrary of “provocations” aimed at “worsening the situation on the front”.
“Russia is making every effort to help resolve this conflict. And we will continue to do so relentlessly, ”Mr. Peskov said during his interview.
If the fighting was almost at a standstill since a truce concluded in the summer of 2020, they have resumed with intensity in recent weeks. Since the start of the year, 26 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in this way, while the country had lost only 50 soldiers throughout the year 2020.
This resumption of the fighting and the movements of Russian troops pushed Kiev to increase its contacts with the West, Washington, Berlin and Paris assuring Ukraine of their support and German Chancellor Angela Merkel asking Mr. Putin to “reduce” the Russian presence on the Ukrainian border.
“There will be consequences” in case of Russian “aggression”, warns the head of American diplomacy
“There will be consequences” in the event of Russian “aggression” in Ukraine, warned the head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken, by expressing “the concern” of the United States at the movements of Russian troops in the Ukrainian border.
“There are more Russian troops massed at the border than at any time since 2014, during the first Russian invasion,” said the minister in an interview broadcast on NBC on Sunday, taking up an estimate already made this week by the White House.
Democratic President Joe “Biden was very clear: if Russia acts recklessly, or aggressively, there will be costs, consequences,” he added, without specifying the nature of any reprisals.
Antony Blinken, who discussed this issue on Friday by telephone with his French and German counterparts, stressed that the United States and “their European allies shared the same concern”.
The war in Donbass began in April 2014, in the wake of a pro-Western revolution in Ukraine that was also followed by Moscow’s annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula.
This conflict has left more than 13,000 dead and nearly 1.5 million displaced. The intensity of the fighting had largely declined after the Minsk peace accords in 2015, but the political settlement of the conflict is not moving forward.
In recent days, Kiev and several Western capitals have criticized Moscow for massing troops on the Ukrainian border and the annexed Crimean peninsula, while deadly incidents with the separatists are almost daily.
According to Ukraine, the Kremlin could be looking for a pretext to launch a major military operation.
The Kremlin has not denied these troop movements, but assures not to threaten anyone, accusing Kiev on the contrary of “provocations” aimed at “worsening the situation on the front”.
“Of course, no one is embarking on the path of war, and no one accepts the possibility of such a war,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.