Does this crisis talk decide about war and peace in Ukraine?
Russia’s ruler Vladimir Putin (69) and US President Joe Biden (79) will have the possibly decisive phone call tonight about the future of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The conversation should begin at 9:30 p.m. (CET) and continue through midnight, as the Kremlin announced on Thursday.
► Only on Wednesday did Russia’s leadership ask for the phone call at short notice! To the great surprise of the White House. “I cannot say why the Russian side requested this call,” said a senior US diplomat on Wednesday evening.
It is clear, however, that Biden will “make it clear to the Russian Putin that we are prepared for diplomacy and a diplomatic path forward, but are also ready to react if Russia advances with another invasion of Ukraine,” said the official from the area of national security.
Photo: private
“data-zoom-src =” https://bilder.bild.de/fotos/russland-bewegt-seit-ueber-einem-monat-unhaben-von-waffen-auf-zuegen-in-das-russisch-ukrainische- gren-5d6cacc1812446e2a5e4c3137199005d-78682228 / image / 6.image.jpg “/> Russia has been moving massive amounts of weapons on trains into the Russian-Ukrainian border area for over a monthPhoto: private
Moscow also commented on the upcoming phone call, but remained vague as usual. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the purpose of the conversation was “to continue the discussion of the issues that were on the agenda of the recent video conference call”. He was not more precise.
► Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Office spokeswoman Maria Sakharova poured fuel on the fire again just hours before the phone call.
She said that the Ukrainian President Volodymir Selensky had “become a threat to Ukraine” and that the “silent diplomacy” of the OSCE, which, among other things, was monitoring the situation in the conflict areas, had “failed”.
In addition, she provoked journalists with the rhetorical and fictitious question: “We have to ask the NATO member states: Do they understand that the Kiev regime will shoot the civilian population of Ukraine with their weapons and with their help?”
USA prepare evacuation from Kiev
Meanwhile, the US government seems to only partially believe in a peaceful solution to the conflict, or rather knows from intelligence sources how seriously Putin really means it.
According to the US media, the State Department in Washington instructed the US embassy in Kiev a few days ago to make “emergency preparations in the event of an authorized or ordered departure” from Ukraine, as “further Russian aggression” is expected.
BILD asked the Foreign Office in Berlin whether the federal government was also planning to evacuate its embassy and consulate employees in Ukraine.
The more general answer from the German Foreign Ministry: “Preparing for conceivable crisis scenarios is one of the permanent tasks of every diplomatic mission, which is in close contact with the Crisis Response Center in the Foreign Office.”
Please understand, however, that “basically no information is given about security measures or possible scenarios”.
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