UK defence chiefs fly to Moscow to try and prevent war in Ukraine
The UK’s defence secretary has told his Russian counterpart he wants to rebuild the rock-bottom relations between London and Moscow.
Ben Wallace met with Kremlin defence chiefs as last gasp diplomatic efforts to avoid war in Ukraine continue.
It comes after foreign secretary Liz Truss’ tense meeting with Moscow’s top diplomat yesterday, which ended frostily and seemingly without progress being made.
Boris Johnson flew to Nato HQ in Brussels yesterday to commit further military support to deployment on the alliance’s eastern flank.
Addressing a press conference after the talks, Mr Wallace said the talks had been ‘constructive and frank’ and gone further than Ukraine, touching on efforts to rebuild bilateral relationship between London and Moscow.
Mr Wallace told Putin’s right-hand man Sergei Shoigu: ‘I hope that by speaking today and starting that relationship, that was at 0%, we can resolve a number of the issues that you’ve raised.’
He continued: ‘(That) we can address some of the issues raised in Russia’s draft treaty … and we can try and move on to where we can resolve our issues together through diplomacy, through other actions, and through confidence building measures.’
Mr Wallace said he thought relations were ‘above zero’ following the meeting after hitting a nadir following the Salisbury poisoning in 2014.
Talks appear to have been more cordial than those between Ms Truss and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov yesterday, which ended with the Kremlin’s negotiator saying the talks had been like talking to a deaf person.
Asked about the comments, Mr Wallace said ‘there was absolutely no deafness or dumbness’ in his meeting with Russia’s defence chiefs, adding ‘I shall leave Mr Lavrov to Mr Lavrov’.
Asked if he believed the Kremlin’s defence chief that there is no plan to invade Ukraine, Mr Wallace said ‘we will judge that statement by the evidence’, calling for troops to be pulled back from the border.
The defence secretary said travel advice for Ukraine was being kept under review after the US, South and the Netherlands all moved to urge citizens to withdraw from the country.
The Russian side questioned the UK’s decision to provide military support to the Ukrainian army and urged the West to stop sending arms to Kyiv.
Mr Shoigu said he would respond ‘in the nearest future’ to counterproposals on European security made by the United States and Nato.
The defence secretary was joined by admiral Tony Radakin, the head of the armed forces, and the pair also met with influential Russian general Valery Gerasimov.
Moscow is pushing for sweeping changes to defence arrangements on the continent, scaling back Western military presence in country’s close to Russia’s border.
A demand to permanently block Ukraine from joining Nato has been rejected out of hand.
On the likelihood of an invasion, Mr Johnson said yesterday: ‘I honestly don’t think a decision has yet been taken, but that doesn’t mean that it is impossible that something absolutely disastrous could happen very soon indeed.
‘And our intelligence, I’m afraid to say, remains grim and we’re seeing the massing of huge numbers of tactical battalion groups on the borders of Ukraine – 70 or more.
‘This is probably the most dangerous moment, I would say – in the course of the next few days – in what is the biggest security crisis that Europe has faced for decades and we’ve got to get it right.’
What is going on with Russia and Ukraine?
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin has been concerned about the West’s military expansion into what it sees as Russia’s backyard.
Nato, the US-dominated military alliance which the UK and the majority of European nations are members of, has expanded over the last two decades to cover eastern European and Baltic states.
Ukraine is recognised as an ‘aspiring member’ and has been growing institutionally closer to the West ever since the 2013 Euromaidan demonstrations led to the pro-Russian government being toppled by protesters who favour deeper ties with Europe.
President Vladimir Putin regards Ukraine - which was part of the Soviet Union until 1991 - as a ‘red line’ and has called on the US and Nato to provide guarantees that it won’t become a member, something the West won’t do.
Russia wants to see Nato returned to something closer to its pre-1997 formation before eastern countries on its border joined, as well as the removal of military capabilities from places like Poland and Romania.
The situation between Russia and Ukraine is complicated by the historical and cultural ties between the two countries. Russian is widely spoken in Ukraine and the country is divided between people who feel more European and those who feel more Russian, especially in the country’s eastern areas.
President Putin regards Ukraine as part of ‘greater Russia’ and has written and spoken in the past about reuniting the Russian and Ukrainian people.
In 2014, Russia responded to the fall of the pro-Russian government in Kyiv by annexing Crimea. The peninsula to the south of Ukraine is still recognised as part of the country by the United Nations. Pro-Russian sepratist militants seized control of other areas in the country’s east. Ukraine estimates 7% of its territory is illegally occupied by Russia.
Armed conflict has rumbled on in parts of Ukraine ever since but a larger invasion appears to be closer now than ever before after Russia amassed huge military resources close to the border.
President Putin insists Russia is not planning to invade and it remains unclear whether the troop movement is a prelude to war or whether the Kremlin is using it to force guarantees on Nato expansion from the West.
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