Russia says relations with UK are ‘close to zero’, US questions Macron trip

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Amid heightened tensions over fears of an invasion of Ukraine by Russia, as governments of Western powers accuse, the Kremlin turned its verbal artillery on Friday (11) against the United Kingdom, which has aligned itself with the United States. United in this crisis.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told his British counterpart Ben Wallace on Friday that relations between Moscow and London were at an all-time low, according to Russian news agencies. “Unfortunately, the level of our cooperation is close to zero and about to cross the zero meridian and become negative, which is not desirable,” he said.

Moscow had already openly mocked British Foreign Minister Liz Truss, who made a geographical gaffe by saying it would support “Baltic allies across the Black Sea” — a sea more than 1,000 kilometers from the Baltic countries.

At the same time, the United States questioned the move on the French side to defuse the crisis. Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron went to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin and announced that he had heard from the Russian a promise that he would not escalate the conflict – on Tuesday, the Frenchman also met with Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev. , to negotiate with the Ukrainian side.

Macron’s two tables

The French president was received at a table of about 5 meters by Putin and in a small round piece by Zelensky – Thibault Camus/AFP and Sputnik/AFP

US officials have publicly expressed doubts about the results of the trip, at a time when Russia has more than 100,000 troops, weapons and other equipment deployed at different points along the border with the neighboring country. “Of course, if there was diplomatic progress, we would appreciate it, but we believe it when we see it with our own eyes at the border,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

The day after Macron’s trip, to play down any promises Moscow might have made to France, the Pentagon said Russia was continuing to bolster its forces on the border.

On Thursday, Moscow mobilized its tanks across Belarus to conduct live-fire drills, prompting a NATO warning. It also sent six warships across the Bosphorus for planned naval maneuvers in the Black Sea and the neighboring Sea of ​​Azov.

Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said in an interview with the US channel MSNBC on Thursday (10) that the military maneuvers carried out in Belarus by forces from that country and Russians amount, “from our point of view, to an escalation, not a de-escalation” — as the French president said.

Macron meets Friday afternoon by phone with US leaders Joe Biden, UK leaders Boris Johnson and Germany leaders Olaf Scholz. The conversation also includes Polish President Andrzej Duda, Italian Head of Government Mario Draghi and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Also at the table will be NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel.

Washington said again on Friday that an invasion could happen at any time, perhaps before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, which end on February 20, and that Russia is massing even more troops near Ukraine.

Satellite images published by a private US company showed new Russian military units at various locations near the Ukrainian border.

Biden has again urged Americans in Ukraine to leave the country and, under the trauma of the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, has said he will not send troops to rescue citizens in the event of a Russian attack. “Things can go crazy fast,” the president told NBC News.

The Ukrainian government once again criticized the measure, which Kiev saw as alarmist, and said that “there is no evidence of a radical change in the situation”. Ukraine has repeated that it wants a diplomatic way out, and last weekend called predictions of an imminent invasion “apocalyptic”.

It was not enough to calm other nations. With alarm spreading, Japan and the Netherlands also on Friday urged their citizens to leave Ukraine immediately. The Dutch diplomatic mission is to be withdrawn from Kiev and moved to Lviv, in western Ukraine, far from the Russian border. Israel also said it was withdrawing the diplomatic mission from the capital given “the worsening situation”.

Russia denies any intention to invade Ukraine, but says it can take “military actions”, without specifying, if security demands are not met, such as guaranteeing that the neighboring country will not join NATO – which countries like the United States States consider unacceptable.

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