US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that “no one should be surprised if Russia instigates a provocation or incident that will later be used to justify a military action it has planned all along.”
The top US diplomat, speaking at a joint press conference in Hawaii with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, said that “the risk of Russian military action is high enough and the threat is imminent enough” to order the majority of American diplomats leaving Ukraine is “the prudent thing to do.”
On Saturday, the State Department “ordered the departure of most US direct contract personnel from the Kiev Embassy due to the continued threat of Russian military action” and will suspend consular services in Kiev on Sunday. He will take care of the emergency services in Lviv.
“A core team will remain in Ukraine with our dedicated Ukrainian colleagues as we continue to work tirelessly to resolve this crisis through deterrence and diplomacy,” said Blinken.
Speaking about his Saturday call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Blinken said he raised “serious US concerns that Moscow may be considering launching a military strike against Ukraine in the coming days” and stressed that the path diplomatic remains open.
“In our call, Minister Lavrov said that the Russians are working on a response to the document we sent to Moscow more than two weeks ago, proposing concrete areas for discussion,” Blinken said.
“It remains to be seen whether they will follow through on this, but if they do, we will be ready to engage with our allies and partners,” he said.
Blinken said he, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi also “discussed the threat that Russia’s aggression poses not only to Ukraine, but for the entire rules-based international order” during their meeting in Honolulu.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday accused Western countries and the press of spreading a “large-scale disinformation campaign” about a supposedly imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine “to divert attention from its own aggressive actions”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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