Ukraine conflict
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticizes NATO’s eastward expansion as “machinery against Russia”
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
© Uncredited / Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service / AP / DPA
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov met for talks on the Ukraine conflict. Neither expected a breakthrough. Meanwhile, Russia is deploying the S-400 air defense system to Belarus.
Amidst heavy tensions in the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart Antony Blinken met in Geneva on Friday for crisis talks. In the subsequent press conference, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized the West for its “machinery against Russia”. “The whole thing is now degenerating. We are being told that the troop deployment is too extreme,” Lavrov said, referring to the troops on the border with Ukraine.
At the same time he criticized the eastward expansion of NATO. “It is a plan that was clearly aimed against the Russian Federation.” Russia warned the West that this was a mistake “because it makes NATO vulnerable.” Russia had been assured of peaceful neighbors, “allies close by”. That is not the case. “We are now forced to pursue a dead-end policy,” says Lavrov.
The meeting was initiated by the US side in view of the tensions surrounding the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The situation is critical, Blinken said at the start and again warned Russia against an attack on the neighboring country. He hopes to resolve the crisis diplomatically and peacefully. The goal is de-escalation. Russia sees its security threatened by an extension of NATO to its borders. Lavrov appealed to Blinken that the US should take seriously its commitments in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Russia transfers air defenses to Belarus
Efforts to ease the tension have been in full swing since last week, but have so far produced no tangible results. The US and its western allies are demanding a retreat of the 100,000 Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border to the rear. Russia, on the other hand, wants written security guarantees and an end to the eastward expansion of the western military alliance NATO.
As the defense minister announced in Moscow on Friday, Russia is relocating its S-400 air defense system to neighboring Belarus for maneuvers. Two divisions were loaded onto railway wagons in the far east of the country and are to be taken from the Khabarovsk region to Belarus, where military exercises by Russia and Belarus will begin in just over three weeks. The maneuver has raised concerns in the West.
The maneuvers are also to be held in the south of the ex-Soviet republic to Ukraine and in the west at the EU’s external border. Ten days are scheduled for this. It is a regular exercise. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the total number of soldiers does not exceed the maximum number stipulated in the Vienna Document. This means that there will be fewer than 13,000 soldiers, 300 tanks, 500 armored vehicles and 3,500 paratroopers.
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