WASHINGTON, January 4. /TASS/. The initiatives implying the introduction of more US anti-Russian restrictions, as well as weapons supplies to Ukraine and that country’s accession to NATO run counter to US security interests, the publisher and editorial director of The Nation magazine, Katrina vanden Heuvel, said on Monday.
"The hawkish outcry for more sanctions, more weapons, NATO membership for Ukraine, and an even more confrontational stance toward Russia is exceedingly dangerous and is not in our security or national interests," reads her commentary uploaded to the website of the Washington-based non-governmental organization Institute for Public Accuracy.
"While there is no question that Russia has contributed to tensions, the West should have understood that an attempt to bring Ukraine into NATO would spark deep, historical divisions within Ukraine and escalate Russian concerns. What is essentially a civil war has become a proxy war, a site of dangerous geopolitical focus," said Heuvel, the president of the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord.
"It is imperative that we embrace sober reasoning and diplomacy to end the conflict — more than 14,000 lives have already been taken. Make no mistake: There is no military solution to this conflict. Only reasoned dialogue and political settlement can put Ukraine on the path to long-term stability and some semblance of peace."
Lately, the Western countries and also Kiev have been speculating about alleged risks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed such rumors as groundless fanning of tensions. He stressed that Russia posed no threat to anyone. He did not rule out the possibility of provocations that might be staged in order to back up such claims and warned that attempts at handling the crisis in southeastern Ukraine might entail the direst effects.
US administration officials earlier repeatedly stated that what they described as hypothetical Russian invasion of Ukraine would be impermissible and entail more sanctions against Moscow and a US military buildup in Europe.