The US Undersecretary of State for Europe, Karen Donfried, will travel next week to Ukraine and Russia to talk about the mobilization of Russian troops on the border between both countries, announced the State Department on Saturday (11).
Donfried will be in Kiev and Moscow from Monday to Wednesday to meet with senior government officials “and to reinforce the US commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”
The Undersecretary “will insist on the possibility of making diplomatic progress to end the conflict in Donbass [leste da Ucrânia], applying the Minsk accords,” US diplomacy said in a statement.
Completed in 2015, these agreements to end the conflict between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists have never been respected.
The United States, NATO, European countries and Ukraine accuse Russia of concentrating troops with the aim of a possible invasion of the neighboring country, which the Kremlin denies.
After a videoconference with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, Joe Biden threatened Russia with sanctions in the event of an attack on Ukraine.
Although tensions remain high, the two leaders have decided to assign their teams to monitoring meetings to see if diplomatic detente is possible.
Karen Donfried’s visit will therefore be a first step in that direction.
.
