Russia’s Foreign Ministry comes up with alternative ‘security guarantee’ demands
Russia has provided the United States with an alternative to the “security guarantees” it previously demanded, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Russian state news agency TASS on Jan. 19.
The said “security guarantees” demanded by the Kremlin included a rollback of NATO infrastructure to pre-1997 levels, as well as a ban on Ukraine’s membership of NATO.
It’s on the latter point that Russia seems to be willing to budge. Now, instead of wanting a guarantee from the alliance itself that Ukraine and Georgia will not be let in, Ryabkov says the alternative being offered is a unilateral commitment from the United States to “never vote to give Ukraine and other countries NATO membership.”
Ryabkov has insisted that there was no risk of a large-scale military conflict in Europe and that Russia “did not intend to attack Ukraine.”
Earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow’s response “could vary” if the West did not agree to Russia’s “security guarantees.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO was ready to negotiate with Russia, but would not walk away from its core principles, including the right of each country “to choose their own path.”
Currently, over 100,000 Russian troops are estimated to be deployed on the Russian-Ukrainian border and in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, reports Ukrainian intelligence.
Fears of a renewed Russian invasion of Ukraine began in late October when Russian troops began building up on the Ukrainian border and in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories.
Russia has also refused to provide assurances that it would not do so, instead demanding its so-called “security guarantees” from the United States and NATO.
The situation on Ukraine's eastern border is a matter of deep concern for both U.S. and European Union officials. According to U.S. President Joe Biden, the White House is looking at a range of options to dissuade Russia from a potential attack on Ukraine.
Biden has defined these measures as “the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to go ahead and do what people believe he may do.”
In early December, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Russian aggression towards Ukraine could intensify in late January 2022.
On Jan. 14, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated that the United States has evidence of Russia planning to conduct various false flag operations in the Donbas.
Corroborated by the Pentagon, Psaki said that Moscow has sent operatives, trained in explosives and urban combat, into eastern Ukraine, to be used to stage false flag operations that could give Putin a pretext to renew his invasion of the country
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