Nov 13,2021:France on Friday warned Russia against damaging Ukraine’s territorial integrity after the United States shared with European allies its fears of Russian troop movements along the Ukrainian border and of a possible attack.
Four European diplomats told Reuters that US officials had expressed concern over an attack on Ukraine with its European Union allies at a briefing in Brussels. Two said the meeting took place on Wednesday with 30 ambassadors at the level of NATO’s transatlantic alliance.
France’s foreign and defense ministers, Jean-Yves Le Drian and Florence Parly, issued an unusually sharp statement after meeting with their Russian counterparts in Paris.
“The two ministers expressed their concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Ukraine and clearly warned of the serious consequences of further possible damage to the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” the statement said.
Earlier in the day, Russia dismissed as inflammatory suggestions that Moscow could weigh in on an attack and accused the U.S. of aggressive moves in the Black Sea.
European diplomats declined to give further details on U.S. reasons or evidence to fear an attack.
In addition, one diplomatic source said that last week at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council – the main political decision-making body within NATO – Karen Donfried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, shared in more detail her recent trip to Moscow. and shared her concern about the troop buildup.
“The patterns of Russian behavior are different from what we have seen before,” a NATO source said without explanation.
“So far, it is unclear whether this military build-up is intended to lead to an incursion into Ukraine or whether it is just another exercise.”
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and says the waters around it now belong to Moscow despite most countries still recognizing the peninsula as Ukrainian.
Russian-backed separatists took control of the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine that same year and soldiers on both sides are still regularly killed in the conflict there.
The Kremlin said it was dependent on Moscow, where it had deployed within its borders. “Such headlines do nothing more than pointless and unfoundedly nurture tensions. Russia is not threatening anyone, ”said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shuigu, in Paris for the talks with Parly and Le Drian, was quoted by TASS as saying that it is important to work with France to scale up the Ukrainian situation.
A rebuke
In another rare reprimand from Moscow, Paris earlier this week accused it of blocking efforts to convene a ministerial meeting between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine aimed at pushing forward peace agreements reached in 2014. France and Germany accused Russia of imposing unrealistic conditions, something Moscow neas.
The European Union this week accused a close Russian ally of Belarus of encouraging thousands fleeing parts of the world to try to cross its borders.
Brussels is expected to impose new sanctions next week, diplomats said. There is no suggestion at this stage that Russia is supporting Belarus functionally, although it has publicly rebuked the EU.
The Russian defense ministry said it had detected six flights of NATO spy planes in airspace over the Black Sea, part of what it described as intensifying reconnaissance by the Western Army.
The Russian military also said it was tracking U.S. naval ships in the Black Sea and accused Washington of studying the region as a possible theater of war.
Returning from Washington, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv and its Western allies have intensified diplomatic efforts to warn Russia against launching a new military attack on Ukraine.
A spokesman at a German foreign office said ministers from France, Germany and Ukraine would discuss the crisis on Monday in Brussels.
