“Russia retains the ability to invade Ukraine without warning.” This was stated by NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, upon his arrival at the meeting of the defense ministers in Brussels. An alarm that comes as the Russian agency Interfax talks about the preparations of the Moscow troops to withdraw from Crimea. A withdrawal that, in fact, does not fully convince the European allies: “There is no sign of withdrawal, other troops are arriving,” the NATO secretary said dryly.
“I can assure you, as far as Russia is concerned, that there will be no attack this Wednesday. There will be no escalation either next week or next week or next month. ” The Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told Welt, rejecting any hypothesis of an imminent attack on Ukraine. Chizhov then added: “Wars in Europe rarely start on Wednesdays.”
In the meantime, the first cracks open in the western front. After yesterday the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a press conference with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, highlighted that Ukraine would not join NATO as long as the two of them were in office, Stoltenberg recalled that “they are the thirty countries allies of Born to decide on membership, it is not Russia that decides who becomes a member. It is about respecting the right of each country to choose its own path. And it is one of the principles of NATO ».
According to the High Representative for EU foreign policy, Josep Borrell, «what happens in Ukraine will mark the future of humanity. If the law of the strongest is imposed then we will take steps backwards in history. Europe’s great step forward was having given up on war ».
And the president of the EU Council, Charles Michel, explains that together with the diplomatic commitment to unblock the Ukrainian crisis, “we are working on the preparation of sanctions and restrictive measures should they become necessary. If there was a military aggression against Ukraine, the cost for Russia should be severe, the consequences should be massive “, he added, recalling that” such consequences would also be heavy for us Europeans “.