Following face-to-face conversations on the current Ukraine problem, the US has gotten a formal response from Moscow, which is the latest move in the ongoing diplomatic effort aimed at preventing a potential Russian invasion of the nation.
Moscow’s answer comes only days after Washington delivered its own documents to Moscow, and just days before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are scheduled to speak on the phone on Tuesday.
A senior State Department official and a source confirmed the news on Monday “received a written follow-up from Russia.”
“It would be unproductive to negotiate in public, so we’ll leave it up to Russia if they want to discuss their response,” the spokesperson said. “We remain fully committed to dialogue to address these issues and will continue to consult closely with our Allies and partners, including Ukraine.”
The public’s reaction to the US written reply has been mostly gloomy, with administration officials saying the US expressed willingness to cooperate with Russia on issues such as weapons control but refused to budge on NATO’s “open door” policy.
It’s unclear whether Moscow’s formal answer, which was first published by the Washington Post, arrived before or after Monday’s UN Security Council meeting on Moscow’s escalation along Ukraine’s border, which resulted in a deadlock between the US and Russia.
Following the meeting, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield informed reporters that the US had accused Russia of plotting to concentrate tens of thousands of troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border “called for this meeting to allow the Russians to give us an explanation of what their actions are.”
“We didn’t hear much,” she said. “They didn’t give us the answers that any of us would have hoped that they would provide.”
Despite China and Russia’s resistance, the open meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York took place on Monday.
US officials have consistently pushed Moscow to choose a diplomatic road ahead, warning that a fresh invasion of Ukraine would be met with fast and severe penalties, a message echoed by President Joe Biden during the meeting on Monday.
Thomas-Greenfield remarked in her speech to the Security Council on Monday: “We continue to hope Russia chooses the path of diplomacy over the path of conflict in Ukraine. But we cannot just ‘wait and see.’ It is crucial that this Council address the risk that their aggressive and destabilizing behavior poses across the globe.”
She mentioned Russia’s buildup of over 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border, as well as US information that Russia has deployed about 5,000 troops into Belarus and plans to mass.” more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border … by early February.”
“If Russia further invades Ukraine, none of us will be able to say we didn’t see it coming. And the consequences will be horrific,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
Vasily Nebenzia, the Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, alleged his UN colleagues are “whipping up tensions and rhetoric,” claiming that the US and others wished for conflict.
“This deployment of Russian troops in our own territory is getting our Western and US colleagues to say that there’s going to be a planned military action and even an act of aggression … the military action of Russia against Ukraine that they’re all assuring us is going to take place in just a few weeks’ time if not a few days’ time. There, however, is no proof confirming such a serious accusation whatsoever being put forward,” he said.
“You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen. You’re waiting for it to happen as if you want to make your words become a reality. This is despite the fact that we are constantly rejecting these allegations and this is despite the fact that no threat of a planned invasion into Ukraine from the lips of any Russian politician or public figure over all of this period has been made,” Nebenzia said.
Thomas-Greenfield retorted that it was Moscow, not the US or its Security Council allies, that was being confrontational.
“We have made clear our commitment to the path of diplomacy. I hope our Russian colleagues will also choose this path and engage peacefully with the international community, including Ukraine,” she said.
