US warns Russia as Kremlin talks about war threat in Ukraine

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MOSCOW – The Kremlin voiced interest Thursday astir a imaginable escalation of warring successful a separatist struggle successful eastbound Ukraine arsenic the U.S. issued a beardown informing to Russia to enactment distant from Ukraine.

Ukrainian and Western officials person disquieted astir a Russian unit buildup adjacent Ukraine, fearing it could herald an invasion. But Moscow has insisted it has nary specified volition and accused Ukraine and its Western backers of making up the claims to screen up their ain allegedly assertive designs.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov astatine their gathering successful Stockholm connected Thursday that “if Russia decides to prosecute confrontation, determination volition beryllium superior consequences," adding that “the champion mode to avert a situation is done diplomacy.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said successful Moscow that “the Ukrainian authorities' assertive and progressively intensive provocative enactment connected the enactment of contact” gives grounds for concerns astir a imaginable flare-up of hostilities. He said that caller statements from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and different Ukrainian officials bespeak that “the Ukrainian enactment doesn't exclude a forceful scenario.”

“The probability of hostilities successful Ukraine inactive remains high,” Peskov said successful a league telephone with reporters.

Denis Pushilin, the caput of the self-proclaimed separatist republic successful Donetsk, said connected Russian authorities tv that helium could crook to Moscow for subject assistance if the portion faces a Ukrainian attack.

Ukrainian officials person denied an volition to reclaim the rebel regions by force.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted aft gathering with Blinken successful Stockholm that “we are intimately moving unneurotic connected processing a broad deterrence package, including terrible economical sanctions, to demotivate Russia from further assertive moves.”

The 2 ex-Soviet neighbors person remained locked successful a tense tug-of-war aft Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula successful 2014 pursuing the ouster of the country’s Kremlin-friendly president and threw its value down a separatist insurgency successful Ukraine’s eastbound concern heartland, known arsenic the Donbas. More than 14,000 radical person died successful the fighting.

President Vladimir Putin has warned NATO against deploying its troops and weapons to Ukraine, saying it represented a reddish enactment for Russia and would trigger a beardown response. He said Wednesday that Moscow would question Western guarantees precluding immoderate further NATO enlargement and deployment of its weapons adjacent Russia's borders.

Blinken said “we person heavy concerns astir Russia’s plans for renewed aggression against Ukraine,” adding that “it’s a interest that is shared by galore successful Europe.” He was speaking during a gathering with Lavrov connected the sidelines of a ministerial gathering of the Organization for Security and Cooperation successful Europe successful Stockholm.

Blinken reaffirmed that the U.S. has “a strong, ironclad committedness to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

Referring to a 2015 bid statement for eastbound Ukraine brokered by France and Germany and signed successful Minsk, Belarus, Blinken called for a “full implementation of the Minsk agreements with Russia pulling backmost its forces.”

Moscow says it's not a enactment to the woody betwixt Ukraine and self-proclaimed separatist regions, and denies Ukrainian and Western assertions of sending its troops and weapons into eastbound Ukraine.

In his code astatine the OSCE meeting, Lavrov urged Ukraine to abide by its work with the Minsk statement that envisages a wide autonomy for the rebel regions, informing that Kyiv’s refusal to grant it is simply a “way toward a catastrophe.”

He besides warned Biden astatine their gathering that “any further NATO enlargement eastward undoubtedly compromises our halfway information interests.”

The apical Russian diplomat charged that the West is “playing with fire” erstwhile it argues that Russia doesn’t person a accidental successful NATO’s enlargement plans.

“I privation to marque it crystal clear: turning our neighbors into a bridgehead for confrontation with Russia, the deployment of NATO forces successful the regions strategically important for our information is categorically unacceptable,” helium told the OSCE meeting.

Lavrov followed up connected Putin's telephone for a caller information arrangement, stating that reaching an statement connected a acceptable of “long-term and legally binding information guarantees is imperative to forestall sliding into a confrontational scenario.”

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Jan M. Olsen contributed to this study from Copenhagen, Denmark.

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