Category Archives: US foreign policy

EU praises ‘restraint’ of Kyiv government; Blinken denounces Kremlin claims – as it happened

Posted on by

European Council urges Moscow to ‘de-escalate’ its military buildup; Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy says global security architecture is failing

The Kremlin has confirmed that Russian leader Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron will speak by phone on Sunday, the TASS news agency reported.

A second separatist leader, Leonid Pasechnik of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), has signed a decree calling for a full military mobilisation, according to Reuters.

Continue reading...

Ukraine crisis: Biden ‘convinced’ Russia plans invasion but diplomacy still possible – live

Posted on by

Russian state media say a blast has occurred in Donetsk amid multiple US warnings of false flag incidents

Sam Jones here, taking over from Samantha Lock.

One of today’s main events will be the Munich security conference, where world leaders including US vice-president Kamala Harris, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will gather to discuss the crisis.

It’s tragic and we’ll see terrible scenes unfolding. You would expect that President Putin – who obviously can’t be taken at his word – is manufacturing some sort of trigger, or is in the process of executing the final stages of his plan to go into Ukraine.

(Via Australian Associated Press)

Continue reading...

Ukraine crisis: Blinken and Lavrov agree to meeting as tensions reach ‘moment of peril’

Posted on by

Senior figures to meet next week amid US warnings that Vladimir Putin could give order to invade within days

Antony Blinken is to meet the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, next week, as the US secretary of state warned the crisis in Ukraine was a “moment of peril for the lives and safety of millions of people”.

The US state department said on Thursday night that Blinken had accepted an invitation to meet Lavrov provided there was no invasion of Ukraine. The move provides hope that diplomatic channels remained open even as US warnings of an imminent invasion grow louder.

Continue reading...

You’re going to feel this, Biden tells Americans, as Ukraine war looms

Posted on by

Analysis: US president gives the kind of speech normally delivered on the eve of momentous action, while speaking over Putin’s head to the Russian people

Joe Biden’s speech sounded like a closing argument, one that had been honed for some time and one that suggested expectations are still high in the White House that Russia will take military action.

Biden briefly nodded to Moscow’s claims to be withdrawing before abruptly contradicting them, raising the US estimate of the number of troops surrounding Ukraine to 150,000 in a “threatening position”.

Continue reading...

Ukraine crisis: Russian invasion could start at ‘any time’, White House warns – live updates

Posted on by

Latest words from Scholz as he prepares to meet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy:

We urgently expect signs of de-escalation from Moscow. Further military aggression would have very serious consequences for Russia. I absolutely agree with our allies on that. We are witnessing a very, very serious threat to peace in Europe.

“Ukraine is convening a meeting with Russia and all member states in the next 48 hours to discuss the reinforcement and movement of Russian forces along our border,” he wrote on Facebook.

I would like to emphasise once again that we are talking about the movement of Russian troops on Russian territory,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, once again accusing Ukraine of ramping up tensions.

“Large-scale movements of Ukraine’s armed forces are also carried out in the border zone on Ukrainian territory, moreover, in the area that borders on the territory of the self-proclaimed republics, which leads to escalation of the situation”

Continue reading...

Russia sending thousands more troops to Ukraine border

Posted on by

Move suggests Putin could extend crisis for weeks as Johnson and Biden agree ‘crucial window for diplomacy’ still exists

Russia is sending thousands more troops to its border with Ukraine in a sign that Vladimir Putin could extend the crisis for weeks, as Boris Johnson warned the situation had become “very, very dangerous”.

British officials estimate that a further 14 Russian battalions are heading towards Ukraine, each numbering about 800 troops, on top of the 100 battalions massed on the borders – a force already believed capable of launching an invasion.

Continue reading...

US and allies condemn North Korea over missile test ‘provocations’

Posted on by

Joint statement from US, Japan and South Korea urges Pyongyang to return to negotiations and stop its recent spate of ‘destabilising’ missile launches

The top diplomats of Japan, South Korea and the United States declared their unity against North Korea on Saturday after a series of ballistic missile launches by Pyongyang.

After a day of meetings in Honolulu, US secretary of state Antony Blinken, South Korean foreign minister Chung Eui-yong, and Japanese foreign minister Hayashi Yoshimasa condemned the series of seven launches as “destabilising” in a joint statement.

Continue reading...

US warns of ‘distinct possibility’ Russia will invade Ukraine within days

Posted on by
  • Joe Biden due to speak with Putin by phone on Saturday
  • Officials tell Americans to leave Ukraine in next 48 hours

The US has warned of the “very distinct possibility” of a Russian invasion of Ukraine in the next few days, potentially involving an overwhelming attack on Kyiv, and told all remaining Americans to leave the country in the next 48 hours.

Joe Biden is due to speak to Vladimir Putin by phone on Saturday. Diplomatic sources said that Biden had told allied leaders in a call that Vladimir Putin had taken a decision to go ahead with an invasion, but Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said: “We have not seen anything come to us that says a final decision has been taken, [that] the go order has been given.”

Continue reading...

Biden releases $7bn in frozen Afghan funds to split between 9/11 families and aid

Posted on by

Money would go toward humanitarian efforts for Afghan people and to US victims of terrorism, keeping it out of hands of Taliban

Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday releasing $7bn in frozen Afghan reserves to be split between humanitarian efforts for the Afghan people and American victims of terrorism, including relatives of 9/11.

In a highly unusual move, the convoluted plan is designed to tackle a myriad of legal bottlenecks stemming from the 2001 terrorist attacks and the chaotic end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, which ignited a humanitarian and political crisis, the New York times reports.

Continue reading...

Havana syndrome has ‘dramatically hurt’ morale, US diplomats say

Posted on by

American Foreign Service Association chief Eric Rubin says syndrome, which remains a mystery, has affected recruitment

The spread of Havana syndrome has “dramatically hurt” morale in the US diplomatic corps and affected recruitment, according to the head of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA).

Eric Rubin, whose association represents nearly 17,000 current and former diplomats and foreign aid workers, said it was getting harder to find young people to work abroad, because of concerns about Havana syndrome – and about whether the government would look after them if they got sick.

Continue reading...

‘No light at the end of the tunnel’: Americans join Hong Kong’s business exodus

Posted on by

Worsening Sino-US ties, strict Covid rules and the crackdown on dissent have dented the territory’s fabled allure as a business hub, say expats

In July 2018, Tara Joseph, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, wrote an article in the best-known local English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post, stressing to Americans the territory’s unique position as an Asian business hub.

“The US is forgetting the differences between Hong Kong and China. Let’s remind them,” she wrote. “Hong Kong continues to have a robust and hearty infrastructure of values, practices and institutions that could not contrast more starkly with those of the mainland system.”

Continue reading...

Xi-Putin summit: Russia inches closer to China as ‘new cold war’ looms

Posted on by

Fifty years after Nixon and Mao’s historic handshake, the geopolitical world order is again being reshaped

When the leaders of China and Russia meet in Beijing this Friday shortly before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, observers of the bilateral relationship will be looking for insights into how this 21st century quasi-alliance is reshaping the postwar world order.

It was 50 years ago this month, on 21 February 1972, that the historic handshake between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong changed the geometry of the cold war. Historians called the visit “the week that changed the world”. It later influenced Washington’s subsequent movement towards détente with Moscow.

Continue reading...

Islamic State leader killed during raid by US special forces in Syria

Posted on by

Joe Biden says military has removed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi from the battlefield

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of Islamic State and one of the world’s most wanted men, has been killed during an overnight raid by US special forces in north-west Syria.

The pre-dawn attack on a house in the village of Atme, just south of the Turkish border, led to up to 13 casualties, among them women and children. It also resulted in the destruction of a US helicopter, which had been used to carry special forces troops from Erbil in Iraq.

Continue reading...

Ukraine crisis: Russia criticises US military moves as ‘destructive step’

Posted on by

Moscow says US deployments in eastern Europe increase tensions, as Nato says Russia has moved 30,000 troops to Belarus

The US decision to deploy more than 3,000 US troops in Germany, Poland and Romania is a “destructive step” that makes it harder to reach a compromise over Ukraine, Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said, as Moscow continues to build up its forces.

Alexander Grushko said the move by the US president, Joe Biden, would “increase military tension and reduce scope for political decision”, and would “delight” Ukrainian authorities, who would continue sabotaging the Minsk agreement “with impunity”. The Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015 were designed to reach a political settlement in the east of Ukraine, including greater autonomy.

Continue reading...

While the focus is on Ukraine, Russia’s presence in the Sahel is steadily growing | Bruce Mutsvairo, Mirjam de Bruijn, Kristin Skare Orgeret

Posted on by

With Russian mercenaries invited to Mali as European forces withdraw, how worried should the west be about Russia’s increasing influence across Africa?

Even in the turbulent, conflict-wracked Sahel region of Africa, the recent military takeover in Burkina Faso was intriguing. Amid the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation, the decision by neighbouring Mali’s military-led government to invite fighters from the Wagner Group, widely seen as a paramilitary network of mercenaries with Russian connections, is causing growing concern in many western capitals.

Mali’s transitional government faces a rough road to recognition after the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) announced a strengthening of economic and diplomatic sanctions in January in response to the proposal to postpone elections until at least 2026.

Continue reading...

Trump risked disaster with Abbas praise in key Israel meeting, ambassador says

Posted on by

In new book, David Friedman recounts private meeting with Israeli president in which Trump also knocked Netanyahu – and how he says he turned his man around

Meeting then-Israeli president Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem in May 2017, Donald Trump stunned advisers by criticising the then-prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for being unwilling to seek peace while Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, was “desperate” for a deal.

The comment “knocked everyone off their chairs”, David Friedman, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, writes in a new book.

Continue reading...

Don’t panic: why Ukraine doesn’t like western talk of imminent attack

Posted on by

Analysis: While Putin’s intentions remain unclear, Kyiv would rather it didn’t get classed as the next Kabul

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has again insisted that Russia does not currently have enough troops in place to mount a further invasion of Ukraine, a day after Boris Johnson travelled to Kyiv and said there was a “clear and present danger” of an imminent military campaign.

Even taken together, the troops currently massed on Ukraine’s border with Russia, on the annexed Crimea peninsula and in neighbouring Belarus, are “insufficient for a large-scale military operation”, said Kuleba in a briefing for foreign journalists on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

From eastern Europe we watch Ukraine in fear. Its fate could decide the continent’s future

Posted on by

Past trauma means we worry about Russia reclaiming its cold war sphere of influence and that the west will again abandon us

Two points about the Ukraine crisis are crystal clear. First, Vladimir Putin wishes to reimpose Russian control over Ukraine, whatever the price. His political dream of restoring the Soviet sphere of influence is echoed in a wishlist of “security guarantees” presented to western governments by Russia in December 2021. Nato, he maintains, should return to the pre-1997 state of affairs; Russia, apparently, need not.

Second, whatever Putin decides in the current crisis, there are real fears in central and eastern Europe that settled borders are now under threat. These fears are grounded in reason. What seemed unrealistic in the immediate post-cold war years is now again a real possibility. Questions about our collective safety and security have returned, along with memories of a traumatic and not so remote past.

Karolina Wigura is a historian of ideas, board member of the Kultura Liberalna Foundation in Warsaw and a fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin

Jarosław Kuisz is a political analyst and essayist, editor-in-chief of the Polish weekly Kultura Liberalna and a policy fellow at the University of Cambridge

Guardian Newsroom: Will Russia invade Ukraine? Join Mark Rice-Oxley, Andrew Roth, Luke Harding, Nataliya Gumenyuk and Orysia Lutsevych discussing the developments with Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday 8 February, 8pm GMT | 9pm CET | midday PDT | 3pm EDT. Book tickets here

Continue reading...

Biden says US is ‘ready no matter what happens’ as Russia escalates threat on Ukraine – as it happened

Posted on by

Donald Trump is being widely accused of “saying the quiet part loud”, when protesting that Mike Pence could have “overturned” his boss’s election defeat by Joe Biden.

Though he has appeared to admit Biden won before, Trump usually insists he won and his opponent stole the election through voter fraud – the “big lie” which animates rallies like one in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday.

Continue reading...

US to target Putin’s inner circle with sanctions in event of Ukraine invasion

Posted on by

Washington official says sanctions list will comprise oligarchs and their family members

Washington and its allies have prepared a list of Russian elites in or near Vladimir Putin’s inner circle who would be hit with economic sanctions if the Kremlin were to order an invasion of Ukraine, according to a US briefing.

The language in the briefing by a US official to Reuters is notably similar to that used on Sunday by the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who said Britain would introduce legislation to allow banks, energy companies and “oligarchs close to the Kremlin” to be targeted by London, and makes clear the targeting is coordinated internationally.

Continue reading...