Russia says nuclear missile crisis is unavoidable; slams US, Nato response to its demands
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described tensions as reminiscent of the Cold War and said a crisis between Moscow and Washington was unavoidable
- He said Russia’s main demands being unacceptable did not leave a lot of room for optimism but that Moscow would continue the dialogue
.png?itok=arIb17P0)
Russia said that a nuclear missile crisis between Moscow and Washington was unavoidable without measures to ensure restraint and predictability, the TASS news agency reported.
Vladimir Ermakov, a senior Russian foreign ministry official, said Moscow thought the United States was preparing to deploy short and intermediate range missiles to Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the report said.
The TASS report came as talks over defusing a crisis in Ukraine, where the two countries are at loggerheads over a build-up of Russian troops on the border, remained at an impasse.
Russia criticised US and Nato security proposals aimed at defusing a crisis over Ukraine, while still leaving the door open for further talks.
This comes a day after the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization delivered written responses to Russia, broadly rejecting Moscow’s demands that the Western alliance close its door to Ukraine’s potential future membership and roll back forces from former Soviet states.
What is Nato? Alliance in spotlight in Ukraine-Russia crisis
On Thursday, the Kremlin decided there was room to continue dialogue with the United States, but that it looked clear Russia’s main security demands had not been taken into account by Washington.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would not rush to draw conclusions after the United States formally responded on Wednesday to its proposals for a redrawing of post-Cold War security arrangements in Europe.
Describing tensions on the continent as reminiscent of the Cold War, Peskov said it would take time for Moscow to review the US response.
He said it was in both Moscow and Washington’s interests to continue dialogue, though he said that remarks out of the United States and Nato about Russia’s main demands being unacceptable did not leave a lot of room for optimism.
“Based on what our colleagues said yesterday it’s absolutely clear that on the main categories outlined in those draft documents … we cannot say that our thoughts have been taken into account or that a willingness has been shown to take our concerns into account,” Peskov said.
“But we won’t rush with our assessments,” he said.
In separate comments, Russia’s top diplomat said that there was hope of starting serious dialogue, but only on secondary questions and not on the fundamental ones, Russian news agencies reported.
Russia says it will retaliate if Ukraine demands are not met
The United States on Wednesday rejected Russia’s key demand to bar Ukraine from Nato and said it believed Moscow was ready to invade but offered what it called a new “diplomatic path” out of the crisis.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would speak again in the coming days to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whom he met Friday in Geneva, as a separate initiative by France brought a promise by Moscow at least to keep talking to Ukraine’s government.
One month after Russia put forward sweeping security proposals, having sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine’s border, the United States delivered a reply in coordination with Nato allies and said it was ready for any eventuality.
“It sets out a serious diplomatic path forward should Russia choose it,” Blinken told reporters of the US response, which he said would remain confidential.
He renewed an offer on “reciprocal” measures to address mutual security concerns including reductions of missiles in Europe and transparency on military drills and Western aid to Ukraine.
But he made clear that the United States would not budge on Russia’s core demand that Ukraine never be allowed to join Nato, the US-backed military alliance.
“From our perspective, I can’t be more clear – Nato’s door is open, remains open, and that is our commitment,” Blinken said.
Russia, which has a complicated historical relationship with Ukraine, has fuelled an insurgency in the former Soviet republic’s east that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014.
Russia that year also seized Crimea after the overthrow of a government in Kyiv that had resisted efforts to move closer to Europe.
“While we are hoping for and working for a good solution – de-escalation – we are also prepared for the worst,” Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
02:27
Amid Russian troop build-up in Belarus, Ukrainian soldiers doubt good result in Kremlin-US talks
“I have no idea whether he’s made the ultimate decision, but we certainly see every indication that he is going to use military force sometime perhaps (between) now and the middle of February,” Sherman told a forum.
She said Putin may be waiting so as not to overshadow the February 4 start of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, which the Russian leader will attend amid a diplomatic boycott by the United States and several of its allies.
Germany mocked over plan to send helmets to Ukraine
In another bid to defuse tensions, senior Russian and Ukrainian officials met for eight hours in Paris with representatives of France and Germany.
Dmitry Kozak, the Kremlin deputy chief of staff, said the talks were “not simple” but that another round would take place in two weeks in Berlin.
France said after the so-called Normandy Format talks that the envoys committed to a fragile July 2020 ceasefire in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Moscow separatists.
“We need a supplementary pause. We hope that this process will have results in two weeks,” Kozak said.
An aide to French President Emmanuel Macron also called the talks “difficult”, but told reporters, “In the current circumstances, we received a good signal”.
France and Germany have joined the United States in warning Russia against an invasion but have been less direct about sanctions.
What threat? Russian state TV plays down Moscow’s role in Ukraine crisis
Germany’s new coalition government has sent mixed signals on whether it would sever the soon-to-open Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia, which will circumvent Ukraine to provide gas to Europe’s largest economy.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, while brushing off the impact, warned that attempts to punish Putin personally would be “destructive”.
The United States again encouraged its citizens to leave Ukraine, warning an invasion could be imminent.
But Ukraine’s government, hoping to prevent panic and to defuse a potentially existential crisis, has played down the dangers and sought to offer ways out.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the Russian troops posed “a threat to Ukraine” but that the numbers deployed were “insufficient for a full-scale offensive”.
Andriy Yermak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky who took part in the Paris talks, wrote on Twitter that the meeting was “a strong signal of readiness for a peaceful settlement”.
US export rule that hammered China’s Huawei teed up to hit Russia
In an early move to de-escalate that was envisaged by France, Ukraine’s government this week withdrew a bill in parliament governing the status of Russian-backed separatist provinces in the east of the country, which Moscow saw as violating previous commitments.
France is hoping that Russia will agree in turn to humanitarian measures such as prisoner exchanges in eastern Ukraine and the opening of checkpoints manned by the separatists.
But Zelensky has stood firm against another French suggestion of direct talks between Ukraine’s government and the Russian-backed separatists.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg and Agence France-Presse.
