Sunday December 12th 2021
Warning to Russia
G7: “Massive Consequences” of Invasion of Ukraine
Fears that Russia might invade Ukraine have been growing for weeks. At the ministerial meeting in Liverpool, the G7 take a clear position and send a clear warning to Moscow.
The G7 countries have warned Russia of “massive consequences” in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. The group of states takes a “very clear” position with regard to such consequences for Moscow, declared the British chief diplomat Liz Truss at the end of a G7 foreign ministerial meeting in Liverpool.
Russia has pulled tens of thousands of soldiers together on the border with Ukraine in the past few weeks. This feeds fears in the West that an invasion of the Russian army in the neighboring country might be imminent. Moscow denies this and accuses the government in Kiev of provocations.
The G7 states spoke with a “very united voice” on the Ukraine question, stressed Truss. The group of states said “very clearly that there will be massive consequences for Russia in the event of an invasion of Ukraine”. The G7 includes Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Canada and the USA.
Diplomatic mission in the region
In order to sound out possibilities for a diplomatic settlement of the Ukraine conflict, the European commissioner of the US State Department, Karen Donfried, travels to Kiev and Moscow at the beginning of the week. The US State Department announced on Saturday that she will hold talks with senior government officials from both countries from Monday to Wednesday. On Wednesday, the US diplomat will travel to Brussels to discuss the Ukraine crisis with NATO and EU allies.
In eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian militias and the Ukrainian army have been fighting each other since 2014 after Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. In the conflict, Moscow supports the separatists who have proclaimed so-called People’s Republics in Luhansk and Donetsk. More than 13,000 people have already been killed in the fighting.