The Kremlin warned Thursday that there was “not much cause for
optimism” that the West would satisfy Russia’s demands in the showdown over
Ukraine, but said that President Vladimir Putin would take his time to study
the written responses that the United States and
NATO submitted a day earlier
before deciding how to proceed.
اضافة اعلان
“All these papers are with the president,” Putin’s spokesman,
Dmitry Peskov, told reporters. “There will of course be some time needed to
analyze them — we won’t rush to any conclusions.”
Peskov did not discuss the content of the responses, which the
United States has requested be kept confidential. But he said that based on
public remarks about them by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, there was little likelihood that the West
would offer concessions on Russia’s central demands.
“There is not much cause for optimism,” Peskov said, replying to
a question over whether Russia would be satisfied with the Western responses.
“But I would continue to refrain from making any conceptual evaluations.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sounded a similarly
negative note, saying in comments published on his ministry’s website that the
U.S. document contained “no positive reaction” to Russia’s main demands.
The Russian officials’ comments came against the backdrop of
Russia’s troop buildup near Ukraine, and hours after a shooting at a Ukrainian
missile factory overnight that served as a reminder of the fragile military
situation on the ground. There was no immediate evidence that the shooting was
related to the building military tensions in the region.
As Western fears grew over a possible Russian attack against
Ukraine, Moscow published a list of demands last month that would involve NATO
withdrawing troops from Eastern Europe and pledging never to allow Ukraine to
join. Russia requested a response in writing, which the United States and NATO
submitted Wednesday.
Lavrov said that while the U.S. response included initiatives
that could serve as “the beginning of a serious conversation,” there was no
sign of progress on Russia’s priority of rolling back the NATO presence in
Eastern Europe. He said that consultations among Russian government officials
would be followed by a briefing to Putin, who “will decide on our next steps.”
Putin, who has been silent in public on the Ukraine crisis since
December, visited a cemetery in St. Petersburg on Thursday to mark the 78th
anniversary of the end of the Nazis’ siege of Leningrad, in which Putin’s
brother died as a child. State television aired brief footage of Putin, in a
black overcoat, placing flowers onto a wreath in the snow. Peskov said the
president planned no other public events.
For now, officials on all sides say there is still a chance for
diplomacy to resolve the crisis.
Senior officials from Ukraine and Russia met in person in Paris
for eight hours Wednesday in a session mediated by France and Germany.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Thursday described the talks as a
positive development, but emphasized the importance of adhering to the
cease-fire in the eastern Ukraine region known as the Donbas, where violence
occasionally flares in a long-simmering conflict between Ukrainian forces and
Russian-backed separatists.
“For our country, the first priority at this moment is achieving
a stable and unconditional quiet in the Donbas,” he said in a statement.
A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexei Zaitsev, said
another meeting scheduled to take place in Berlin in two weeks could identify
“solutions to problems that have been piling up for seven years.” And he
reiterated Russian officials’ insistence that their country had no plans to
attack Ukraine.
“We see it as unacceptable to even think about war between our
peoples,” Zaitsev said, according to the Interfax news agency.
But analysts say it is very likely Putin’s diplomats do not know
what, exactly, their president is planning. The Kremlin is seeking to rewrite
Europe’s post-Cold War order to give Russia a sphere of influence in Eastern
Europe — something Putin says is critical to Russia’s long-term security. Putin
has threatened unspecified “military-technical” measures if the West does not
accede to Russia’s demands.
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