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Diplomacy on as crisis on knife edge
Putin sees basis for talks after Scholz meeting; in Blinken call, Lavrov urges ‘pragmatic dialogue’
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hopes for a diplomatic solution to tensions with the US and its allies. But he warned that Moscow won’t wait forever for the West to address its demand that Ukraine never join Nato.
“We want to resolve this issue now, right now or in the near future, through negotiations, peaceful means,” Putin said at a joint press conference in the Kremlin after three hours of talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the latest in an intense series of efforts by western leaders to ease confrontation amid warnings Russia was preparing to invade its neighbour.
“We really hope that our partners listen to our concerns and take them seriously,” Putin said.
Scholz said it’s key “to make sure that we have a peaceful development, that there is no military conflict. If that takes place, then we are all clear what will happen,” a reference to the painful economic sanctions the US and its allies have threatened to impose on Russia.
The Kremlin has consistently denied it plans an attack, but Putin stopped short of ruling out further escalation if Russia’s security demands aren’t addressed.
Meanwhile, US secretary of tate Antony Blinken held a new phone call on the Ukraine crisis Tuesday with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, the state department said. After their last call on Saturday, “they agreed to stay in touch,” a senior state department official said, without providing details of their latest conversation.
Lavrov said earlier on Tuesday that Russia is confident that diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving a tense stand-off with the US and Europe will succeed.
Lavrov said his country will pursue talks on its demands for sweeping security guarantees including a halt to the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) that the US and its allies have rejected.
At the same time, Russia is ready to start talks at an expert level on proposals made by the US on missile restrictions and confidence-building measures, he said, adding that Moscow would publish its response to the US soon.
Cyber attack on defence ministry website, banks
Ukraine said on Tuesday that the websites of the country’s defence ministry and armed forces as well as two state banks were hit by a cyberattack that could have Russian origins.
The announcement from Ukraine’s communications watchdog comes amid fears of a Russian invasion.
The affected sites include the Oschadbank state savings bank and Privat - two of the country’s largest financial institutions.
The defence ministry site showed an error message saying the site was “undergoing technical maintenance”.
The armed forces website said it was inaccessible. The watchdog said Privat and its app Privat24 were hit by “a massive denial of service (DDOS) attack”.
Both banks said their online services were down.
