Monitoring Desk: Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Macron in their telephonic conversation of over 100 minutes stressed that Ukraine’s issue must be resolved through a diplomatic solution.
Aljazeera reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is willing to meet President Putin to find out a “peaceful settlement” amid growing concern over a possible imminent invasion.
French President Macron on Sunday called Russian President Putin and they had a conversation lasting over 100 minutes and were of the view that the ongoing crisis must be resolved through diplomacy.
On the other hand, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken again indicated that Russia is all out to attack Ukraine and stated that “this is deadly serious, that we (US and Ukraine) are on the brink of an invasion. We will do everything we can to try to prevent it before it happens,”.
“Until the tanks are actually rolling, and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from carrying this forward,” he said.
Meanwhile, OSCE will hold Ukraine security talks Monday and has called an extraordinary meeting of permanent representatives on Monday to find ways to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine, the Polish chairmanship of the European security body said. The meeting is called on the request of Ukraine.
Way hysteria is gripping entire Eastern Europe but Belarus and Russia continued their military drills north of Ukraine. Belarusian defence minister Viktor Khrenin said Russian troops will not withdraw from the country because of rising tensions in Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region and “in connection with the increase in military activity near the external borders” of Russia and Belarus.
It may be mentioned that western media is giving different dates for the possible Russian invasion of Ukraine while has Kremlin rejected such reports. The United States believes that Russia would attack Ukraine anytime in the future while Russia says it has no plan to do so.
