Efforts to defuse the crisis in Ukraine via a frenzy of telephone diplomacy failed to ease tensions yesterday, with US President Joe Biden warning that Russia would face ‘swift and severe costs’ if its troops proceeded with a invasion.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has slammed Western claims that Moscow is planning such a move as ‘provocative speculation’ that could lead to conflict in the former Soviet country, according to a Russian reading of a call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Speaking after renewed phone conversations between Putin and Biden, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said on a conference call: “The hysteria has reached its peak.”

Weeks of tension that saw Russia nearly encircle its western neighbor with more than 100,000 troops escalated after Washington warned an all-out invasion could begin ‘any day’ and Russia launched its most major naval exercises for years across the Black Sea.

“If Russia undertakes another invasion of Ukraine, the United States and our allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia,” Biden told Putin, according to the White House.

While the United States was ready to engage in diplomacy, “we are also prepared for other scenarios,” Biden said, as the two nations watch one of the most serious crises in relations East -West since the Cold War.

While the Biden-Putin talks were ‘professional and substantive,’ lasting just over an hour, they produced ‘no fundamental change’ in dynamics, a senior US official told reporters .

Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated a US warning that Russia could stage a “false flag” incident to invade.

“No one should be surprised if Russia provokes a provocation or an incident, which it then uses to justify a military action it had planned from the start,” said Blinken, who spoke to his Russian counterpart on Saturday. Sergei Lavrov.

The Russian Defense Ministry added to the feverish atmosphere by announcing that it had hunted down a US submarine which it said had entered its territorial waters near the Kuril Islands in the northern Pacific.

But the US Indo-Pacific Command has denied operating in Russian territorial waters.

“Possible provocation”

Russia added to the ominous tone by withdrawing some of its diplomatic staff from Ukraine, with the Foreign Ministry saying its decision was prompted by fears of “possible provocations by the Kiev regime”.

Ukrainians attend open military training for civilians yesterday.

Source: Sipa USA/Alamy Live News

But Washington and a host of European countries as well as Israel cited the growing threat of a Russian invasion as they called on their citizens to leave Ukraine as soon as possible.

Britain and the United States have also withdrawn the majority of their remaining military advisers, while the US embassy has ordered “most” of its Kyiv staff to leave.

Australia said it had ordered all remaining embassy staff in Kyiv to evacuate, and Canada said it was temporarily closing its embassy and moving operations to the western city of Lviv.

Dutch airline KLM has announced that it is suspending commercial flights to Ukraine until further notice.

The prospect of fleeing Westerners has prompted Kiev to appeal to its citizens to “stay calm”.

“Right now the greatest enemy of the people is panic,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a visit to troops stationed near the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula.

Punishments

Moscow “doesn’t care” about the risk of Western sanctions if it were to invade Ukraine, the Russian ambassador to Sweden told a Swedish newspaper.

“Excuse my language, but we don’t give a damn about all their sanctions,” Viktor Tatarintsev told Aftonbladet newspaper in an interview published on his website last night.

“We have had so many sanctions already and in that sense they have had a positive effect on our economy and our agriculture,” said the veteran diplomat, who is fluent in Swedish and has served four times in the Scandinavian country.

“We are more self-sufficient and have been able to increase our exports. We don’t have Italian or Swiss cheeses, but we have learned how to make such good Russian cheeses using Italian and Swiss recipes,” he said.

“New sanctions are nothing good but not as bad as the West suggests,” he added.

Tatarintsev accused the West of not understanding the Russian mentality.

“The more the West pushes Russia, the stronger the Russian response will be,” he said.

The diplomat insisted that Moscow was trying to avoid a war.

“It is the most sincere wish of our political leaders. The last thing people want in Russia is war.

© – AFP, 2022