Mediation offers come as Russia accuses US of increasing tensions by sending soldiers to Romania and Poland
The frenetic diplomatic activity on Thursday came as Russiaby sending 1,000 soldiers to Romania and 2,000 to Poland to bolster Nato’s eastern flank. Moscow is refusing to pull back more than 100,000 troops from Ukraine’s borders, and said its security demands had not yet been addressed by Nato.
The Kremlin urged the US to “stop escalating tensions” after the deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, warned the “destructive” move would make it harder to reach a compromise between the two sides. The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, was in Belarus inspecting plans for a massive joint drill planned for between 10 and 20 February between Belarus and Russia
In a change of language, responding to Ukrainian concerns, the White House said on Wednesday it would no longer refer to a Russian invasion of Ukraine as “imminent”, saying the word implied Putin had already made a decision to attack. The Romanian foreign minister, Bogdan Aurescu, said: “It must be said very clearly, if you compare the allied presence on the eastern flank to the troops Russia has massed, it is several times smaller so there is no question of an attempt to escalate tensions.”
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