The Kremlin was considering U.S. replies to Moscow’s calls for “security guarantees” in Europe and Washington warned the Nord Stream 2 pipeline due to supply Russian gas to Germany would be halted if there was any intrusion into Ukraine by tens of thousands of Russian troops massed near the ex-Soviet state’s border.
There was no immediate word on how Moscow viewed the proposals – submitted in response to Russia’s demands to revamp European security, including a halt to all eastward expansion of NATO and a permanent bar on any notion of Ukraine joining the Atlantic Alliance.
Russia has repeatedly said it plans no attack on Ukraine.
The contents of replies from the United States and NATO were not disclosed. But Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Washington had made clear its “core principles” and could not accept any notion of a Russian veto on NATO membership and on the choice of alliance partners to be made by Ukraine.
Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has been largely out of the public eye since the New Year amid heightened tension over the mass troop deployment. Russian television showed him in a St.Petersburg cemetery honouring those who died in the wartime Nazi siege of Leningrad on the anniversary of the blockade being lifted in 1943 – the president’s older brother died in childhood during the siege.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price told National Public Radio: “I want to be very clear: if Russia invades Ukraine one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”
He added that he was “not going to get into the specifics”. And it was not immediately clear by what means the United States would have the 1230-km project cancelled.
“We will work with Germany to ensure it does not move forward,” Price said.
Germany only said it would not rule out imposing new sanctions in relation to the pipeline, which has a capacity of 55 billion cubic metres of gas annually and enjoys top-level and business support in both Germany and Russia.
Western countries criticise pipeline
Some Western countries say it will increase Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. Ukraine has denounced Nord Stream 2, saying Moscow will use it as an economic weapon against Kyiv –particularly once the traditional gas transit route to Europe through Ukraine is no longer needed.
The pipeline, though complete, has yet to go into operation as German regulators have so far said it fails to meet European rules and have denied certification.
U.S. President Joe Biden said last week he believed a Russian invasion was on the cards. He and other Western leaders say any such intervention would trigger serious consequences and the imposition of tougher sanctions. Biden said sanctions might target Putin himself, a notion backed by Britain.
In Moscow, officials were generally negative about Russia’s reaction to the U.S. proposals, but said an official reaction had not yet been formulated.
Veteran Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the formal reply requested by Moscow did not address Moscow’s “main concern” about the alliance’s expansion. But he did say that it “gives hope for the start of a serious conversation” on other issues, like proceeding with talks on disarmament issues.
Any formal Russian response, he said, depended strictly on Putin.
Negotiations were still proceeding on various fronts.
Diplomats from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, meeting in Paris, restated their commitment to uphold a longstanding ceasefire agreement in the nearly eight-year-old conflict pitting Ukrainian forces against Russian proxies in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
They continued to support the principles of the Minsk agreements aimed at ending the conflict in which some 14,000 people have died. The Donbas separatists seized large swathes of territory after Russia annexed Crimea –in response to mass demonstrations that force Ukraine’s Russian-friendly president from office.
French President Macron to speak to Kremlin leader
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has called for European diplomatic initiatives in addition to U.S.-led efforts, was due to speak with Putin on Friday. Macron has called for a resumption of the “Normandy format” talks made up of leaders of those four European nations.
Russia denounces Ukraine’s government as a vassal of the United States and refuses to hold any “Normandy” talks, clearly preferring to speak directly to Washington.
Biden was planning to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later on Thursday. A meeting was also planned on 7th February with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Ukraine has been clearly uncomfortable with some U.S. statements in recent days, particularly an order for families of U.S. diplomats in Kyiv to leave the country. Other countries have issued similar orders.
Zelensky has made two video appeals to his compatriots in recent days urging them to remain calm and disregard alarmist statements.
“We are strong enough to keep everything under control and derail any attempts at destabilisation,” he said.
Zelensky came to power in 2019 with a pledge to clinch a deal with Moscow on returning Donbas to Kyiv’s control, but now says any solution depends on Ukraine joining NATO.
NATO issued a promise at a 2008 summit that Ukraine – and ex-Soviet Georgia — would “one day” join the Alliance, but no date was set and the prospect looks remote.
Russia this week launched new military exercises as part of its measures near the border and disembarked equipment in Belarus, its ex-Soviet ally to the west ahead of joint drills.
Tensions had seemed to be ebbing somewhat late last week when both Russia and the United States appeared conciliatory after a day of talks between Lavrov and Blinken.
“I hope the emotions subside a bit,” Lavrov said.
Western and Ukrainian estimates put the number of troops deployed near Ukraine’s border at a little more than 100,000. Troops have been redirected to the area from as far away as Russia’s far east.
The Pentagon said this week that 8,500 U.S. troops had been placed on high alert to deploy at short notice. No decision had yet been made on whether to deploy troops – that would be subject to the Alliance deciding to activate its rapid-reaction force.
There were no plans to send troops to Ukraine.
Biden spoke to European leaders on Monday who “reiterated their continued concern about the Russian military build-up on Ukraine’s borders” during an 80-minute video conference and discussed “preparations to impose massive consequences and severe economic costs on Russia for such actions as well as to reinforce security on NATO’s eastern flank.”
Biden said he had been assured of “total unanimity with all the European leaders”.
It was only two weeks ago that Russia, the United States and NATO were engaged in three rounds of talks in three European cities, packed into a four-day period. The Russian demand for “security guarantees” was the focal point,
Russian negotiators pronounced those talks to be a failure, with one saying they pushed relations into a “dead end” – prompting another day of exchanges last week between Blinken and Lavrov.