U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that he authorized the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to send U.S.-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, a move that comes amid the country’s growing tensions with neighboring Russia.
“I expedited and authorized, and we fully support the transfers of defensive equipment that @NATO allies Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania are providing to Ukraine to strengthen its ability to defend itself against Russia’s irresponsible and unprovoked aggression,” Blinken said in a message on Twitter.
Blinken also thanked former Soviet republics and NATO members “for their longstanding support for Ukraine.”
Blinken’s announced approval of the arms shipments came a day after the U.S. and Russia appeared to make little progress in the escalating standoff over Ukraine, with each side leaving the latest round of high-level talks on Friday with a promise to keep talking.
Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, met for about an hour and a half in Geneva, and both officials refused to budge on the main demands.
The two powers appeared to make little progress in the escalating standoff over Ukraine, and each side emerged from the latest round of high-level talks on Friday with a promise to keep talking.
Blinken, in particular, described the impasse in stark terms.
“If any of Russia’s military forces cross the border into Ukraine, it is a new invasion. It will be met with a swift, stern and united response from the United States and our partners and allies,” Blinken told reporters after the meeting.
The West is demanding that Russia withdraw its troops and weapons from the Ukrainian border, while Moscow is pushing for NATO to scale back its operations in Central and Eastern Europe and insisting that the Western military alliance reject Ukraine’s membership bid.
Blinken said the United States and its allies are prepared to address Russia’s concerns, though not without conditions.
“The United States, our allies and partners are prepared to look at possible means to address them in a spirit of reciprocity, which simply means that Russia must also address our concerns,” Blinken said.
“There are a number of steps we can take, all of us, including Russia, to increase transparency, reduce risks, advance arms control, build trust,” Blinken added.
The Threat from Russia
U.S. officials say Russia has amassed nearly 100,000 troops along its border with Ukraine, including in Belarus and occupied Crimea. Blinken warned earlier this month that Moscow could “mobilize double that number in very short order.”
“They have a significant force posture there and that has not diminished. In fact, it has continued to increase. And we remain concerned about that,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Friday.
Despite the concerns of the United States and its allies, Lavrov on Friday sought to paint Ukraine as the aggressor.
“No one is hiding the fact that weapons are being delivered to Ukraine, that hundreds of military trainers are flocking to Ukraine at the moment,” Lavrov said.
Still, the Russian foreign minister called the talks “constructive and useful.”
Lavrov also said that talks on the Kremlin’s security demands would continue and that both Russia and the United States had pledged to put their concerns in writing for further discussion.
Both Lavrov and Blinken said there was a possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden could talk, if both sides believed it could be useful.
NATO rejects pressure from Russia.
However, some of Russia’s renewed demands provoked a sharper response from U.S. allies and partners, including NATO.
“NATO will not give up our ability to protect and defend each other, even with the presence of troops in the eastern part of the alliance,” spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in a statement Friday, rejecting demands that NATO withdraw troops from Bulgaria and Romania.
“We will always respond to any deterioration of our security environment, including by strengthening our collective defense,” she said.
The United States also sought to reassure allies, including Kiev.
Blinken “reaffirmed unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” in a phone call Friday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, the State Department said.
UN Calls For De-escalation
Amid ongoing tensions and political maneuvering, the head of the United Nations called for calm.
“It is clear that my message is that there should be no military intervention in this context,” Secretary-General António Guterres said. “I hope that this, of course, will not happen in the current circumstances. I am convinced that it will not happen and I hope I am right.”
But in a joint statement Friday night, the defense ministers of the three Baltic states said they were “united in our commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of continued Russian aggression.”
The statement said Estonia would provide Ukraine with anti-tank weapons, while Latvia and Lithuania were transporting anti-aircraft missiles and other equipment to strengthen Ukraine’s defensive military capabilities. It was not immediately clear when the weapons and equipment would arrive in Ukraine.
The German government said Friday that it was considering Estonia’s request to send Soviet-made howitzers once owned by East Germany to Ukraine. Estonia acquired them from Finland, which bought them from Germany’s military surplus in the 1990s.
[Margaret Besheer, desde la ONU en Nueva York y Wayne Lee en Washington contribuyeron a este despacho. Parte del material de este informe provino de The Associated Press y Reuters]
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