Berlin: US president Joe Biden has warned that “things could go crazy quickly” in Ukraine and again urged American citizens to leave immediately, as the UK’s defence secretary headed to Moscow in the latest round of diplomacy.
“American citizens should leave, should leave now,” Biden said in an interview with NBC News. “We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. This is a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly.”
On Friday, UK defence secretary Ben Wallace joins foreign secretary Liz Truss in Moscow after she held frosty talks with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov said the meeting was like a conversation of “the mute with the deaf”. Wallace will reportedly tell Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, that invading Ukraine would be a “lose-lose” situation.
The diplomatic manoeuvring came as Russia-Ukraine relations soured further. On Thursday Ukraine’s foreign ministry accused Moscow of showing a “blatant disregard for the rules and principles of international law” by planning missile tests in the Black Sea that Kyiv says will make shipping navigation impossible there and in the Sea of Azov. Russia has just started 10 days of drills with Belarusian forces.
In Berlin on Thursday night, Russia and Ukraine said they had failed to reach any breakthrough in a day of related talks with French and German officials aimed at ending an eight-year separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.
It had not been possible to “overcome” Russia and Ukraine’s different interpretations of the 2015 Minsk agreement aimed at ending fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces, said Russian envoy Dmitry Kozak.
His Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Yermak, said both sides agreed to keep talking. “I hope that we will meet again very soon and continue these negotiations. Everyone is determined to achieve a result,” he said. The conflict in the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions, known together as the Donbas, simmers despite a notional ceasefire.
Military analysts estimate Moscow has massed more than 135,000 troops on the borders of Ukraine, both in Russia and in Belarus – and some now believe nearly all the necessary elements are in place if Putin wanted to attack.
In his interview, Biden reiterated that under no circumstances would he send US troops to Ukraine, even to rescue Americans in case of a Russian invasion. “That’s a world war. When Americans and Russians start shooting one another, we’re in a very different world,” he said.
“What I’m hoping is that if [Russian president Vladimir Putin] is foolish enough to go in, he’s smart enough not to in fact do anything that would negatively impact American citizens.”
During a visit to Nato’s headquarters on Thursday, Boris Johnson said the Ukraine crisis had entered “the most dangerous moment” as Russian forces continued their military buildup on the borders of its southern neighbour.
The UK prime minister said “our intelligence remains grim” but told reporters in Brussels that he didn’t think a decision has yet been taken by Putin to order an invasion.
“This is probably the most dangerous moment. I would say that in the course of the next few days, in what is the biggest security crisis that Europe has faced for decades, we’ve got to get it right,” Johnson said.
But he made it clear that Britain could not intervene militarily if Ukraine was attacked. Speaking later at a military base in Warsaw, he said: “The UK has been supplying some defensive weaponry in the form of anti-tank missiles, we have been training Ukrainian troops. That is as far as we can go at the moment.”
The conclusion of Johnson’s whirlwind European trip took place at Warsaw’s presidential palace, where he was greeted by Polish President Andrzej Duda. They exchanged warm words, with the prime minister repeating that Britain stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Poland and its eastern Nato allies.
The UK has put 1,000 troops on standby in case of a humanitarian crisis in the east if the current Russian military buildup leads to war, and 350 Royal Marines arrived in Poland to coincide with Johnson’s visit.