Washington/Berlin/Brussels/Moscow (dpa) – The leaders of the United States and its European allies have jointly called on Russia to take visible steps of de-escalation in the Ukraine conflict. During a video conference on Monday evening, the participants – among them US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) – again expressed their desire for a diplomatic solution and threatened Moscow with serious consequences in case of further aggression towards Ukraine, as the governments in Washington and Berlin announced. Further high-level consultations are scheduled for the next few days. Scholz will receive French President Emmanuel Macron in Berlin this Tuesday. The Ukraine conflict will also be on the agenda at their meeting.
In view of the massive build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine, there are fears in the West that Russia could be planning to invade its neighbour – though Moscow denies this. It is also considered possible that the intention is merely to incite fears in order to persuade the NATO states to make concessions in response to demands for new security guarantees. For example, Russia’s declared goal is that NATO should renounce further eastward enlargement and withdraw its armed forces from eastern alliance states. NATO, the USA – its most powerful and militarily important ally by far – and the EU reject these demands as unacceptable.
On Monday evening, Biden, Scholz and Macron joined Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Polish President Andrzej Duda, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel in a video conference to discuss the situation.
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