Macron leads Ukraine-Russia crisis: Life stories | Critical Issues of Ukraine-Russia
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President of France Emmanuel Macron has said to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The French leader has said he wants to “negotiate with Russia and reduce” the talks, which are due to start at 14:00 GMT.
Macron’s efforts are the highest-level intervention but a Western leader to resolve conflicts; will travel to Kyiv to hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday.
The proliferation of about 100,000 Russian troops and weapons near the Ukrainian border has sparked Western fears that Moscow is preparing for an attack. Russia has denied any involvement in the attack and has blamed NATO forces, led by the United States, for undermining security in the region.
It wants NATO to bar Ukraine and other former Soviet states from membership and repatriate Eastern European troops. Washington and NATO rejected Russia’s demands as a non-partisan state.
Here are some recent updates:
Borderlands: Fear, uncertainty and life ahead of Ukraine
Amid the fears of the Russian invasion, war-torn people in eastern Ukraine who have endured more than seven years of long-running conflict doubt what will happen in the region – as well as their lives.
read more Pano.
US military planes bring troops to Poland
Two U.S. military planes landed at an airport in Poland, and many are expected to arrive later, bringing the number of additional troops ordered by President Joe Biden to Europe last week.
When the plane was seen crashing into Rzeszow-Jasionka airport in southeastern Poland, an airport official told Reuters that three more were expected. A Polish military spokesman also said more planes were expected to arrive by Monday, but did not say how many.
Biden has ordered about 3,000 troops to relocate to eastern Europe to protect NATO’s eastern side from the threat of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
France’s role in the crisis and the 2015 Minsk agreement
- Macron said it was important to “prevent damage” and that it was acceptable for Russia to express security concerns.
- “Russia’s goal today is not Ukraine, but to clarify the rules for NATO-EU alliance,” Macron told the French Journal du Dimanche in an interview on Sunday.
- France played a key role in trying to represent Kyiv and Moscow in the past. Together with Germany, it helped bring about the 2015 peace accord in eastern Ukraine to resolve the conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists that began last year following Moscow’s occupation of the Crimea Peninsula.
- An agreement signed in Belarus’s capital, Minsk, helped put an end to the fighting, but political efforts have not been forthcoming and tensions are running high in eastern Ukraine, Donbas.
- Putin and his officials have urged France, Germany and other Western countries to urge Ukraine to meet its obligations under the 2015 agreement, which called for the independence of the eastern terrorists and the pardoning of separatists. The treaty stipulated that only if the conditions were met would Ukraine regain its independence with Russia in the rebel zone.
- But many in Ukraine see the Minsk agreement as a violation of the country’s interests and government officials have strongly warned Western countries not to force Kyiv to use the agreement amid ongoing conflicts.
The Kremlin expects no major changes from the Putin-Macron conference
The Kremlin has said it does not expect any possible negotiations between Putin and Macron, but hopes the French leader will devise ways to reduce tensions in Europe.
“Things are very difficult not to expect success in one meeting,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
But he said Russia was aware of some of the conflict-related ideas Macron had said earlier and was planning to share them with Putin.
Peskov added that Moscow has not heard anything new in recent days on the security guarantees it is asking for. “Our Western agents do not like to mention this topic,” he said.
UK FM can go to Russia: Report
Moscow and London are discussing a visit by the United Kingdom foreign minister to Moscow on Thursday, RIA Novosti news agency reported on Russia’s foreign ministry.
Russia links US nuclear weapons talks to security concerns: Report
The future of nuclear weapons talks between Russia and the US will largely depend on the progress of Moscow’s security talks, Russia’s ambassador to the United States has said.
Vladimir Yermakov, head of the nuclear disarmament program at Russia’s Foreign Ministry, told RIA Novosti that talks on the Kremlin’s views were crucial to nuclear weapons talks.
No meetings were agreed upon in the aftermath, and their resumption now largely depends on resolving security issues raised by Moscow, he said.
Biden’s main ally says Ukraine’s invasion could come ‘every day’
US NSA Jake Sullivan says Russia could invade Ukraine “every day”.
“It could happen tomorrow soon or it could take weeks,” he warned on Sunday.
“If a war breaks out, it will cost a lot of human money in Ukraine, but we hope that given our preparation and our response, it will come back to a fair price in Russia,” added Sullivan.
Ukraine says it does not believe in ‘apocalyptic predictions’ in Russia
Ukraine has rejected “apocalyptic predictions” of a major offensive in Russia after US officials say Moscow has mobilized 70 percent of the troops needed to evacuate.
“Do not believe in apocalyptic predictions. Big cities have a variety of events, but Ukraine is ready to do anything, “Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Sunday.
read more Pano.
The Prime Minister of Australia has repeatedly called on the citizens to leave Ukraine
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said he is “deeply concerned” about the crisis and has called on his government to expel Australians from Ukraine.
Morrison told reporters in Canberra that government officials had been working for several weeks to deliver a message to those remaining in Ukraine that it was “time to leave if you want to leave”.
He also called on Russia to continue its negotiations to end the crisis.
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