Britain said on Thursday the “most dangerous moment” in the West’s standoff with Moscow appeared imminent, as Russia held military exercises in Belarus and the Black Sea following the buildup of its forces near Ukraine.
Ukraine also staged war games and a senior US official warned that “bodybags will come back to Moscow” if Russian troops crossed the border. But leaders on all sides signalled they hoped diplomacy could still prevail in what British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Europe’s biggest security crisis for decades.
In a new round of talks, Britain’s foreign minister sparred publicly with her Russian counterpart in Moscow, Johnson visited NATO headquarters in Brussels and Germany’s leader met his Baltic states counterparts in Berlin, where officials from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France were also holding discussions.
Russia, which has more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, denies Western accusations it may be planning to invade its former Soviet neighbour, though it says it could take unspecified “military-technical” action unless demands are met.
“I honestly don’t think a decision has yet been taken” by Moscow on whether to attack, Johnson told a news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “But that doesn’t mean that it is impossible that something absolutely disastrous could happen very soon indeed.”
“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.”
The way forward was diplomacy, Johnson later told reporters in Poland.
Stoltenberg also said it was a dangerous moment for European security, adding: “The number of Russian forces is going up. The warning time for a possible attack is going down.”
As Britain published legislation broadening the scope of those linked to Russia who could be sanctioned if Moscow invaded, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Russian President Vladimir Putin faced a “stark choice” between two very different paths.
If he chose war “(he )should understand that body bags will come back to Moscow.., that the citizens of Russia will suffer because their economy will be completely devastated,” she told broadcaster MSNBC.
In a new point of friction, Ukraine criticised Russian naval exercises that it said were part of a “hybrid war” and had made navigation in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov “virtually impossible”.
Russia said six warships had arrived at Sevastopol in Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. There was no comment from Moscow on Ukraine’s statements.
Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov urged the international community to retaliate, including by slapping port restrictions on Russian ships.
‘Mute and deaf’
Visiting Moscow, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was upbraided by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who accused her of refusing to listen.
“I’m honestly disappointed that what we have is a conversation between a mute person and a deaf person,” the 71-year-old veteran diplomat told a news conference.
“Our most detailed explanations fell on unprepared soil .. numerous facts that we produced bounced off the British delegation.”
