After a day of heavy threats and a diplomatic whirlwind, the US and Russia have agreed to hold new talks on the Ukraine crisis. The foreign ministers of both countries will meet in Geneva on Friday, according to the State Department in Washington. This was preceded by new, severe threats, including for the first time from Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), who threatened consequences for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the event of an attack on Ukraine.
The talks between the US and Russia were arranged after a phone call between Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Blinken. After Russia rejected any negotiations a week ago, this is now interpreted as a concession by Moscow. German diplomacy has also worked intensively to resolve the crisis. Chancellor Scholz spoke sharply for the first time about the Russian demands: “It is clear that there will be high costs and that everything must be discussed if there is a military intervention against Ukraine,” he said on Tuesday in Berlin when asked whether the pipeline will be subject to punitive measures. So far, Scholz had reacted extremely reservedly to calls to threaten Nord Stream 2 with an end.
In Moscow, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) said at a meeting with her Russian colleague Lavrov that Germany had “no choice but to defend our common rules, even if this has a high economic price”. She campaigned for Germany and France to resume talks between Russia and Ukraine in the so-called Normandy format. The implementation of the Minsk agreement to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine is a key point of contention between Moscow and Kiev. Lavrov accused Ukraine of not fulfilling its obligations. Baerbock said there were different views on the situation on the ground.
Chancellor Scholz demanded that Russia start withdrawing troops from the border with Ukraine. “We expect Russia to de-escalate the situation. This could include, for example, a reduction in troops on the Ukrainian border,” he said. Any Russian aggression against Ukraine will have severe consequences. With the allies, you are preparing to “be able to react immediately and precisely”. He continued to rule out German arms deliveries to Ukraine. “The German federal government has been pursuing a similar strategy on this issue for many years. And that includes not exporting lethal weapons,” he said. Britain is currently supplying light anti-tank weapons.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit both Kiev and Berlin ahead of his Geneva meeting. In Germany, he will speak to the foreign ministers of France and Great Britain alongside Baerbock. The US State Department said the meeting in Geneva was about finding out whether Russia wanted to continue on the path of diplomacy.