British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said he believed the words of his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu that Russia had no plans to invade Ukraine. He spoke about this at a press conference at the British Embassy in Moscow.
Wallace emphasized that Russian proposals for security guarantees in Europe, the Ukrainian crisis, and the Minsk agreements were widely discussed at the talks.
“I’m grateful [министру обороны России Сергею] Shoigu for agreeing to meet with me to discuss a range of issues, including ongoing tensions around Ukraine and on its borders. We discussed in detail the Russian draft treaty on security guarantees handed over to NATO, paid attention to several of its points, ”Wallace said (quoted by TASS).
“We both agreed on the importance of implementing the Minsk agreements in order to move forward towards de-escalation,” he said. He stressed that Russia’s “invasion” of Ukraine would be a tragedy not only for the two peoples, but for the whole of Europe and the world. At the same time, Wallace noted that he trusts Shoigu’s words that Russia has no intentions to attack Ukraine.
Shoigu, in turn, stressed that the military-political situation in Europe is becoming more and more tense, but this is not the fault of Russia. He turned to Western countries with a request to contribute to reducing tensions and asked them to stop “stuffing Ukraine with weapons.” The head of the Ministry of Defense noted that the current situation negatively affects relations between Russia and the UK, the level of which is “close to zero.” In his opinion, it is necessary to stop the “escalation of the situation” in relations between Russia and NATO in order to stabilize relations. However, as Shoigu emphasized, so far the Russian side sees “only threats and sanctions” in every speech by British high-ranking officials.
Earlier, the British edition of The Times wrote that Wallace was going to Moscow to give a “warning” to Shoigu on the Ukrainian crisis. He is going to report that a hypothetical Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a move that no one would benefit from. As noted by the publication, the British minister will bring a new package of sanctions to Moscow to try to convince the Russian authorities of the need to de-escalate the situation around Ukraine.
Wallace himself, before a trip to Russia, said that the situation in eastern Ukraine is becoming more tense, despite the negotiations that Western countries are conducting with the Russian leadership. He also claimed that by now the Russian side has concentrated at the borders of Ukraine more than half of all Russian ground troops intended for direct combat operations.
Recently, the countries of the West and the United States have attributed to Russia plans for military aggression against Ukraine. The American command claims that Russia has concentrated more than 100,000 of its troops near the border with Ukraine. In Moscow, this figure is not confirmed. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied plans to attack Ukraine. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was forced to send troops to the Ukrainian borders due to the “unfriendly atmosphere” created by NATO exercises and the advancement of the alliance’s infrastructure to Russian borders.