WASHINGTON, February 23. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken believes it does not make sense to go forward with a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov previously planned on February 24.
"It does not make sense to go forward with that meeting at this time. I consulted with our allies and partners - all agree - and today [on February 22 - TASS) I sent Foreign Minister Lavrov a letter informing him of this," Blinken said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba on Tuesday.
"The United States, and I personally, remain committed to diplomacy if Russia is prepared to take demonstrable steps to provide the international community with any degree of confidence that it’s serious about de-escalating and finding a diplomatic solution. We will proceed, in coordination with allies and partners, based on Russia’s actions and the facts on the ground. But we will not allow Russia to claim the pretense of diplomacy at the same time it accelerates its march down the path of conflict and war," the US’ top diplomat noted.
"Now that <…> Russia has made clear its wholesale rejection of diplomacy," it is unnecessary to hold the talks that were previously planned, he said. "But, having said that, to the extent there is anything that we can do to avert an even worse-case scenario - an all-out assault on all of Ukraine, including its capital, <…> we, our partners remain open to diplomacy," Blinken added.
The meeting between Lavrov and Blinken was initiated earlier by Washington. Moscow gave consent to the meeting. It was suggested to organize the meeting in Geneva.
Normandy format
Blinken refused to comment on the possible future of the Normandy format.
Asked whether the US’ top diplomat believes that the Normandy format no longer works due to the latest developments around Ukraine and should be replaced, he said that this question should better be addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I think the question is best directed at President Putin. As far as we can see by the actions that he’s taken, he’s rejected it, and he’s torn up in effect the Minsk Agreements, which the Normandy Format was designed to advance," Blinken said.
"If Russia is at all serious about resolving the conflict that it created in the Donbas pursuant to the agreements it signed, the Minsk Agreements, it’s of course showing exactly the opposite. So the question is really for President Putin," he added.
Budapest Memorandum
The US administration believes that Moscow allegedly "began to tear" the Budapest Memorandum in 2014, at the time of Crimea’s reunification with Russia, Blinken said.
"Well, in effect, Russia began to tear up the Budapest Memorandum in 2014 when it seized Crimea and went into the Donbas - leading, backing, financing, supporting the separatists in waging war in the Donbas. I think what we’ve seen in the last 24 hours is the further repudiation of Budapest by Russia," the US’ top diplomat said.
According to Blinken, Washington stands "very much behind the support expressed in the Budapest Memorandum and doing everything that it can to uphold Ukraine’s independence, its security, its well-being."
The Budapest Memorandum, or the Memorandum on security assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, was signed on December 5, 1994, by leaders of Ukraine, Russia, the UK, and the US.
Respond in case of escalation
The US has started imposing new sanctions against Russia "high, and will stay high" in the event of further escalation of the situation around Ukraine, Blinken said.
"Russia’s clearly chosen to reject diplomacy and dialogue, and instead to pursue aggression. As a consequence, we have started to pursue the severe consequences that we’ve made clear would follow from any renewed Russian aggression," he said.
"Today, faced with the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we started high, and we’ll stay high. The sanctions that we’ve already announced go well beyond what we did in 2014," Blinken said, adding that if Russia continues to escalate, so will the US.
On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the sovereignty of the DPR and LPR (the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics). Subsequent agreements on friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance were signed with their leaders. Putin instructed the Russian Foreign Ministry to establish diplomatic relations with the DPR and LPR, and the Russian Defense Ministry was instructed to ensure the maintenance of peace on their territories.