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Biden thinks Putin will invade Ukraine

Russia wants NATO expansion ban, nothing less


January 21, 2022 00:00:00


A convoy of Russian armoured vehicles moving along a highway in Crimea on Tuesday — AP

NEW YORK, Jan 20 (BBC/AP): US President Joe Biden has said he thinks his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will "move in" on Ukraine but does not want "full-blown war".

He told a news conference Mr Putin would pay a "serious and dear price" for invading, but indicated a minor incursion might be treated differently.

The White House later stressed any Russian military move would be met with a swift, severe response from the West.

Russia has some 100,000 troops near the border but denies planning an invasion.

President Putin has made a series of demands to the West, insisting Ukraine is never allowed to join Nato and that the defensive alliance abandons military activity in Eastern Europe.

Talks between the West and Russia have so far failed to reach a breakthrough, with some of Moscow's demands rejected as non-starters. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to meet the Russian foreign minister in Geneva on Friday, having warned that Russia could attack Ukraine "on very short notice".

However, at his news conference on Wednesday, Mr Biden said: "There are differences in Nato as to what countries are willing to do, depending on what happens.

"If there's Russian forces crossing the border… I think that changes everything.

Meanwhile, Russia maintained a tough posture Wednesday amid the tensions over its troop buildup near Ukraine, with a top diplomat warning that Moscow will accept nothing less but "watertight" U.S. guarantees precluding NATO's expansion to Ukraine.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led the Russian delegation at the security talks with the U.S. in Geneva last week, reaffirmed that Moscow has no intentions of invading Ukraine as the West fears, but said that receiving Western security guarantees is an imperative for Moscow.

The talks in Geneva and a related NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels last week were held as Russia has amassed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine in what the West fears might herald an invasion.

Amid the soaring tensions, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ukraine on Wednesday to reassure it of Western support in the face of what he called "relentless" Russian aggression. In Strasbourg, French President Emmanuel Macron urged the European Union to quickly draw up a new security plan containing proposals to help ease tensions with Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that talks between Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov set for Friday in Geneva are "extremely important."

In a move that further beefs up forces near Ukraine, Russia has sent an unspecified number of troops from the country's far east to its ally Belarus, which shares a border with Ukraine, for major war games next month. Ukrainian officials have said that Moscow could use Belarusian territory to launch a potential multi-pronged invasion.


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