WASHINGTON – The NATO alliance will consult next week on its next move in response to Russia’s “large and unusual” troop build-up near Ukraine’s border, the US State Department’s top diplomat for European affairs said on Friday.
“As you can see, there are all the options on the table, and there is a toolbox that contains a whole range of options,” Karen Donfried, Deputy Foreign Minister for European and Eurasian Affairs, told reporters in a telephone briefing.
US President Joe Biden said he was concerned about the situation in Ukraine, reiterated Washington’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and added that he would “in all likelihood” talk to his Ukrainian and Russian counterparts Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin.
The comments came before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Latvia and Sweden next week to attend meetings with NATO and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Donfried said Moscow’s “large and unusual” troop structure would top the agenda at the NATO summit.
“It is now up to the Alliance to decide what is the next step that NATO wants to take,” Donfried said. Next week, we will talk about our assessment of what is happening at Russia’s border with Ukraine, and we will start that conversation about what options are on the table and what it is like NATO as an alliance would like to do together. ‘
US, NATO and Ukrainian officials have been alerting the movements of Russian troops in recent weeks, indicating that Moscow may be ready to attack its neighbor. Russia has dismissed the allegations as fear.
Asked if Blinken would meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov while he was in Stockholm, Donfried said she had no such announcements to make but added: “Look out.”
FILE – White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, October 26, 2021.
“Hard rhetoric”
In a conversation on Friday, the White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Ukraine’s head of the presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, discussed their concerns about Russian military activity near Ukraine’s border.
The two discussed Russia’s “harsh rhetoric” towards Ukraine and agreed that all sides should continue diplomatic efforts to ease tensions, National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement. ‘Mr. Sullivan emphasized the United States ‘steadfast commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.’
The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence told the Military Times over the weekend that Russia had more than 92,000 troops gathered around Ukraine’s borders and was preparing for an attack in late January or early February.
Moscow, which said it did not threaten anyone, has dismissed such proposals as inflammatory and defended its right to deploy its troops as it pleases.
Donfried was asked what the United States specifically saw as different in Russia’s troop structure this time, but she did not develop, except to say that it was “big and unusual.”
Russia’s intentions remain unclear, with tensions between East and West high with Ukraine, Russia and NATO all conducting military exercises and Moscow accusing Washington of repeating a nuclear attack on Russia earlier this month.
Asked whether the recent escalation had prompted Washington to consider more permanently deploying permanent troops on NATO’s eastern flank, Donfried did not comment. But she said that next week NATO foreign ministers would discuss the broader strategy for the Alliance’s position in the 21st century.
At the OSCE meeting in Stockholm, Donfried said, Blinken will also address the issues of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian and Georgian territories, the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and the crisis in Belarus.
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Reuters
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