The Russians and the West remain in “completely divergent” positions, despite a week of intense diplomatic activity, which is “unpleasant,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said in an interview with CNN today.
“We do not know what the outcome will be, we have had these three negotiation meetings, there are some points of agreement between us. But, in general, in matters of principle, we can now say that we remain in divergent positions, in completely divergent positions. And that is not it. “Good, it’s unpleasant,” he said.
Europeans and Americans accuse the Russians of deploying nearly 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border to invade the neighboring country. US intelligence says Moscow has already deployed agents in eastern Ukraine to carry out “sabotage” operations to create a “pretext” for an attack.
The Kremlin has denied the allegations and said it wanted to protect itself from what NATO said was a threat. Russia specifically demands a guarantee that the North Atlantic Alliance will not accept Ukraine’s accession, a concession denied by the West.
“No one is threatening anyone with military action,” Dmitry Peshkov told CNN when asked about a possible Russian attack in the event of a failed diplomacy. “But we will be ready to retaliate” if NATO does not meet Russia’s demands, he warned, without elaborating on the nature of that response.
“We are not talking about tomorrow, it is not a matter of hours,” but “we do not want to see negotiations for a month, a year, just to discuss our differences,” warned a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We want to feel the beginning of a desire to have our concerns taken into account. At this stage, we have unfortunately not been able to achieve this result.”
Peshkov also rejected the threat of unprecedented US sanctions in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. “It would be a big mistake” because that “would lead to the severance of any relationship between the two countries,” he warned.
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