Moscow ruled on Monday, February 21, that it was too early to talk about a summit bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin and United States President Joe Biden to defuse the Russian-Western crisis around the Ukraine, contrary to what Paris had announced the day before.
“There is an agreement on the fact of having to continue the dialogue at the level of ministers [des affaires étrangères] », Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Nevertheless, “talking about concrete plans for organizing a summit is premature”, he said.
“A meeting is possible if the Heads of State [russe et américain] deem it useful”, he added, however, noting that MM. Biden and Putin always had the option, ” when it’s necessary “, to talk to each other “on the phone or otherwise”.
“Crest Path”
The Russian president said on Monday that Russia was considering the request made by the two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine to recognize their independence. “The purpose of our meeting today [lundi] is to listen to our colleagues and determine our next steps in this direction”declared Vladimir Putin during a meeting of the Russian Security Council, which notably includes the leaders of the army and the intelligence services.
“The use of Ukraine as an instrument of confrontation with our country represents a serious threat, very great for us”Mr. Putin added, saying that Moscow’s priority was not “not confrontation, but security”.
“It is possible today to go to a summit, to bring together the stakeholders”said the Elysée on Monday, after a series of exchanges to this effect between Emmanuel Macron and his two counterparts. “Now it is for President Putin to make his choice”she added, pointing out that “The situation remains very dangerous” and the parts lie on a “ridge path”.
On the night of Sunday to Monday, the French presidency announced that MM. Biden and Putin had “accepted the principle of such a summit”specifying that these talks would then be extended to “all stakeholders” to the Ukrainian crisis provided that Russia does not attack its Ukrainian neighbour. This announcement was made following two exchanges between Mr. Macron and the Russian President and another with the American leader.
On the other hand, a meeting of the Russian and American foreign ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Antony Blinken, is well scheduled for Thursday in Geneva.
“The situation remains extremely tense” on the front
The Kremlin also re-emphasized that the “situation [restait] extremely tense” on Ukraine’s eastern front, between Ukrainian forces and Moscow-backed pro-Russian separatists. “This is worrying”said Mr. Peskov, whose country holds Ukraine responsible for the worsening of the situation on the ground, accusing it of wanting to commit a “genocide” Russian-speaking populations.
Russian security services have thus announced that a shell fired from Ukrainian territory destroyed, on Monday morning, a structure at a Russian border post, without causing any casualties, in the Rostov region, at a distance of about 150 meters from the border.
The Ukrainian armed forces denied this information. “We can’t stop them from producing this false information (…), but we insist that we are not shooting at any civilian infrastructure or the Rostov region” in Russia, Pavlo Kovalchuk, spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces in Kramatorsk, told Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding that he “there is no artillery fire on the occupying forces” Russians.
On the other hand, the Russian army claimed on Monday to have killed five “saboteurs” from Ukraine into Russian territory and that two Ukrainian military vehicles had also crossed the border, Russian agencies reported. The incident took place in the Rostov region at 4 a.m. (Paris time), near the town of Mityakinskaya, according to the army, which specifies that no Russian soldier or border guard was injured. Ukraine has also denied these latest allegations.
The hand of Moscow
Air France has canceled its two Paris-Kiev and Kiev-Paris flights scheduled for Tuesday “in view of the situation on site and as a precaution”the airline said on Monday. “Air France will regularly re-evaluate the situation and recall that the safety and security of flights, of its customers and of its crews, is an absolute imperative”, she added. Until now, the company provided two rotations per week between Paris and Kiev, on Tuesday and Sunday.
Westerners see the hand of Moscow behind the intensification of fighting for several days on the front line and fear that this will serve as a pretext for Russia, which has massed 150,000 troops on the Ukrainian borders, to launch a massive attack against its pro-Western neighbor.
Moscow denies any plan to invade Ukraine, but demands that the country never join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and also the withdrawal of the Alliance of European countries from the East, so many requests rejected by Westerners so far.
Russian stock markets tumbled on Monday, with the RTS index (denominated in dollars) down 10.4% around 12:30 p.m. and the MOEX index (in roubles) down 8%.