Secretary Blinken of the United States, will be travelling to Kyiv and Berlin from January 18-20, 2022, as tensions escalate between the United States and Russia.
According to the statement from the office of the U.S secretary of State, the trip by Secretary Blinken follows extensive diplomacy with the US European Allies and partners about a united approach to address the threat Russia poses to Ukraine and other joint efforts to encourage it to choose diplomacy and de-escalation in the interests of security and stability.
Secretary Blinken will begin his trip in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he will meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on January 19 to reinforce the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Secretary will also meet with the employees and families of the U.S. Embassy to communicate the Department’s efforts to plan for contingencies, should Russia choose to escalate further.
On January 20, Secretary Blinken will travel to Berlin, Germany to discuss recent diplomatic engagements with Russia and joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine, including Allies’ and partners’ readiness to impose massive consequences and severe economic costs on Russia.
The Secretary will meet with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, followed by a meeting with the Transatlantic Quad.
The Secretary’s travel and consultations are part of the diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the tension caused by Russia’s military build-up and continued aggression against Ukraine.
According to the report by Associated Press, on Monday, Lavrov, Russia’s top diplomat, rejected the U.S. allegations that his country was preparing a pretext to invade Ukraine. Speaking to reporters, he dismissed the U.S. claim as “total disinformation.”
Lavrov reaffirmed that Russia expects a written response this week from the U.S. and its allies to Moscow’s request for binding guarantees that NATO will not embrace Ukraine or any other ex-Soviet nations or station its forces and weapons there.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Lavrov emphasized in the call with Blinken the key aspects of Russian draft documents envisaging “legally binding guarantees of Russia’s security in line with the principle of indivisibility of security approved by all countries in the Euro-Atlantic.” It said Lavrov stressed the importance for Washington to quickly deliver a written response to the Russian proposals.
Washington and its allies firmly rejected Moscow’s demands during last week’s Russia-U.S. negotiations in Geneva and a related NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels.
The White House said Friday that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded that Russia had already deployed operatives to rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to carry out acts of sabotage there and blame them on Ukraine to create a pretext for possible invasion.