Moscow rejects US threats of sanctions
Russia today said it would not back down from US threats of tensions over tensions in Ukraine, setting the tone for the important telephone conversation that the two countries’ foreign ministers must have today.
“Washington, not Moscow, is fueling the tensions. “We will not back down and we will not pay attention to the threats of American sanctions,” the Russian embassy in Washington said in a statement on its Facebook page.
This was the reaction of the Russian embassy in the USA to a message of the American diplomacy on Twitter in which Moscow accuses that it “invaded” Ukraine in 2014 and annexed the Crimean peninsula.
These statements are part of a context of escalating tensions around Ukraine.
Russia has been accused by Westerners of gathering tens of thousands of troops on its border with neighboring Ukraine in anticipation of a possible invasion.
Moscow denies any intention of war, but sets a condition for de-escalation of a list, the satisfaction of the reasons it deems there must be guarantees for its security, especially the assurance that Ukraine will never join NATO.
Today, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has not had a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov regarding the continuation of this crisis, while the talks that have taken place so far have shown the gap that separates the two sides.
In the eastern part of Ukraine, a conflict has been raging since 2014 between Kiev forces and pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow.
Source: ΑΠΕ