Moscow calls on Washington to take a more responsible approach to the situation around Ukraine and not to escalate tensions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on April 10.
In addition, the diplomat commented on the statement made yesterday by the White House press secretary Jen Psaki that the United States is “interacting” with Russia at many levels, including at the level of the Ministry of Defense.
“At the level of defense and foreign ministers, there are no contacts with American representatives in Ukraine and are not expected, contacts that took place about 7-10 days ago were carried out at other levels and along other lines,” Ryabkov said in an interview with RIA Novosti “.
The deputy foreign minister urged Washington to take a more responsible approach to the situation in southeastern Ukraine, not to escalate tensions and to treat in detail the issues related to certain information exchanges between the capitals.
The day before, the American delegation headed by the military attaché in Kiev Brittany Stewart paid a working visit to Donbass and got acquainted with the situation on the contact line. Stewart noted that she was “deeply concerned about the situation” around Ukraine’s borders and “support the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the country.
The United States announced its support for Ukraine earlier, on April 1, during telephone conversations between the heads of the military departments of Ukraine and the United States, Andrei Taran and Lloyd Austin. In a statement by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, it was reported that “in the event of an escalation of Russian aggression, the United States will not leave Ukraine alone and will not allow the implementation of aggressive aspirations” in relation to it.
As a result of the negotiations, Austin issued a statement stating that the United States has allocated more than $ 2 billion to Ukraine since 2014 as part of its security assistance. In addition, the American side announced its intentions to further build up the potential of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Since 2014, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup and the new government in Ukraine. The settlement issues are being discussed in the Minsk and Normandy formats – with the participation of Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany.