Russia will face huge and serious consequences if President Vladimir Putin attacks Ukraine, warned the Group of Seven in a draft statement that Reuters had access to on Sunday (12).
US intelligence estimates that Russia may be planning a multi-front offensive against Ukraine as early as next year, involving up to 175,000 troops.
The Kremlin denies having plans for an invasion and says the West is gripped by “Russophobia”. Moscow says the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) threatens Russia and violated guarantees given to it when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
At a meeting in the northern city of Liverpool, representatives of the G7 countries said they were united in the decision to condemn Russia’s military advance near Ukraine, and called on Moscow to ease the escalation.
“Russia should have no doubts that further military aggressions against Ukraine would have heavy consequences and severe costs,” said the draft statement, confirmed by G7 sources.
“We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of any sovereign state to determine its own future,” the text states.
A statement released by the Russian embassy in London on Saturday night (11), before the joint G7 document was released, said Britain’s frequent use of the phrase “Russian aggression” during the Liverpool meeting is misleading and has the function of creating a cause around which the countries of the group can rally.
“Russia has made numerous offers to NATO on ways to ease tensions. The G7 forum could be an opportunity to discuss them, but so far we have heard nothing but aggressive slogans,” the Russian embassy’s statement said.
For Moscow, NATO’s growing support for Ukraine and the possibility that Russia will have alliance missiles aimed at itself on Ukrainian territory is a “red line” it will not allow to be crossed.
Putin has demanded legal security guarantees that NATO will not expand further east or place its weapons near Russian territory.
Washington has repeatedly said that no country can veto Ukraine’s expectations of NATO.
In 2014, Putin occupied the Crimean peninsula on Ukraine’s Black Sea, prompting the West to impose sanctions on Russia.
The Kremlin said on Sunday that Putin had told US President Joe Biden that Russian troops posed no threat, and that Moscow was being demonized for moving troops into its own territory.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there are very serious conceptual differences between Russia and the United States on Moscow’s “red lines”.
The G7 is made up of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and the United States, in addition to a representative of the European Union.
“We call on Russia to scale back, seek diplomatic channels and fulfill its international commitments on the transparency of military activities,” the G7 said in the text.
The group adds that it is articulating agreements “in order to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine”.
Reference: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
