London: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will warn Russian President Vladimir Putin to “step back from the brink” in a phone call on Monday, as the week gets under way with a series of high-stakes meetings and talks aimed at defusing the Ukraine crisis.
In recent days, Kyiv’s Western allies have become increasingly concerned that Moscow could attack its neighbour this month.
Russia denies having any plan to invade and Ukraine’s president has talked down the prospect of an imminent incursion, rejecting unnecessary “panic”.
But disturbed by the presence of thousands of Russian troops massed at the Ukraine border, the United States and its European partners have threatened to impose sweeping economic sanctions on Moscow should it launch an attack. As well as the Johnson-Putin call, the United Nations Security Council will meet for the first time on Russia’s troop buildup in New York on Monday and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold talks by phone with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday.
NATO, the current bugbear of Putin and a beacon of security for many countries fearful of Moscow, has expanded its membership multiple times since it was first formed in the wake of World War II.
The Washington-headed alliance has steadily added a swathe of central and eastern European states into its ranks, troubling Moscow, which is wary of the 30-member strong body edging ever closer to its borders and hemming it in from the West.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has welcomed the United Kingdom’s warning of sanctions against Russia if it invades Ukraine.
“We urge partners to take such actions as they are an important factor in deterring the Russian elite from rash decisions,” Kuleba told a televised briefing.
“When Russian dignitaries realise that they are talking about their assets, real estate and money abroad, where they – the patriots of Russia – keep them, the hotheads in the Kremlin will cool down,” he said. –Agencies
