Ukraine-Russia crisis, Vladimir Putin’s move to recognize the independence of the Donbass separatist republics and order the entry of troops, in the last few hours has confronted the United States with the “not easy dilemma of whether this constitutes an invasion or not”. This is what the Washington Post writes today, noting that immediately after Putin’s speech the White House announced sanctions, limited to investments in the Donbass, specifying that they are not the very severe ones threatened in the event of an invasion.
The uncertainty about the response to be given to Russia’s actions appears to be intentionally provoked by Putin, Ian Bremmer told the Post. “If I had advised Putin I would have told him to do this because now we have a problem” continues the analysis of the president of Eurasia Group, underlining that the Russian president “did not enter” completely in Ukraine deliberately because “the whole goal is do not make the West’s answer easy “.
For the White House, however, Putin’s speech last night “was a speech to justify the need for war to the Russian people,” explained an administration official, following a script that represents Russia as the victim of a aggression by NATO and an alleged Ukrainian belligerence.
“Nobody should confuse this theater with legitimate leadership, Putin is accelerating a conflict that he himself has created”, concluded the official who, however, did not say clearly whether Putin would send what he called peacekeeping troops to the two separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk cross the red line of the invasion.
“Russia has been occupying these regions since 2014, it has always said that there are no Russian forces present in this Donbass area, but we know that the situation is very different, there are Russian forces in the whole area,” he said. . A reasoning later confirmed by another administration official who clearly said that the immediate US response would be provoked by Russian entry into Ukrainian territory “not occupied since 2014”.
A view not shared by all observers in Washington. “Russia is invading Ukraine right now,” tweeted Michael McFaul, ambassador to Russia at the time of Barack Obama, while Bremmer said yesterday the US backtracked from what it has been saying for weeks, that is. “a soldier, a tank, severe sanctions”. “Now they have done it and we are not sure if the allies are with us completely and this is a problem – he concludes – and that is why Putin did it, from his point of view it is the right strategy”.
“MOSCOW ALWAYS READY TO DIALOGUE WITH USA“- Moscow, meanwhile, is always ready to dialogue with Washington and the decision to recognize the independence of the two Ukrainian separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk does not change this will. The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, spoke. on the YouTube channel Solovyov Live, according to reports from the Tass agency. “Even in the most difficult moments we are ready for negotiations,” he said, “we are always in favor of diplomacy,” he added.