“No Seriousness”
Washington and London react reservedly to talks
03/29/2022, 6:13 p.m
The most recent round of negotiations between Russia and the invaded Ukraine is creating more confidence than in a long time. But the United States and Great Britain want more from Moscow. President Putin will be measured solely by his actions.
After the rapprochement in Russian-Ukrainian talks, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken questioned the “seriousness” of Moscow’s negotiation efforts in the Ukraine war. “I haven’t seen anything to suggest that this is going forward in an effective way because we haven’t seen any signs of real seriousness,” he said during a visit to Morocco. “There is what Russia says and what Russia does,” Blinken added. “We’re concentrating on the latter.” Russia’s violence against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people continues.
Great Britain also reacted skeptically to the alleged progress in Istanbul. “We will judge Putin and his regime by his actions and not by his words,” said a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London. A complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory is necessary.
A rapprochement in the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul had previously nurtured cautious hopes. The Russian negotiators described the recent negotiations with Ukraine as “significant” and announced that Russia would “radically” reduce its military activities in the Kyiv region and near Chernihiv in the north. The Ukrainian side said that a meeting between the heads of state of both countries, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, now seems possible.