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For: EFE Updated 27 Jan 2022, 01: 04 AM EST
Russia considers “unacceptable” even the idea that there could be a war with Ukraine, despite the current tensions between the two countries and with the West due to the accumulation of more than 100,000 Russian soldiers on the border with the neighboring country, declared the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We have repeatedly said that our country is not going to attack anyone”, the deputy director of the Department of Information and Press of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Alexei Záitsev.
Declared: “We consider unacceptable even the idea of a war between our peoples.”
Zaitsev pointed out that relations between Russia and Ukraine “continue to deteriorate, due to Kiev’s path towards a greater confrontation ation with Russia”.
“There are practically no political contacts and interparliamentary and interregional cooperation is frozen”, he said.
In his opinion, “it is clear that military tensions in Europe would be reduced if NATO withdraws its forces from Eastern European countries”.
“This is what we urge, it is one of the pillars of our proposals addressed to NATO so that there are security guarantees” that the Alliance does not come closer to the Russian borders and withdraw all troops and all weapons to the position before 2014.
“ We hope that the NATO countries stop igniting the conflict in eastern Ukraine and refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of that country, which should allow Ukrainian negotiators to resolve their differences in dialogue direct”, he maintained, between Kiev and the pro-Russian rebels supported by p or Moscow, confronted from 2014 in a conflict in the east of the country.
The spokesman also considered that the NATO Secretary General’s statements about the possibility of increasing NATO’s presence on the eastern flank “creates a negative environment for dialogue on guarantees of security”.
“This confirms that reinforcing the negotiating position with military potential has become the usual practice of the Alliance”, stressed Záitsev.
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– Pope Francis expresses his concern for Ukraine and security in Europe
– Russia-Ukraine: why a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine raises fears that Europe is closer to a war than it has been in decades
– The US warns of a “swift and severe” response to any Russian incursion into Ukraine