The US authorities are making every effort to ensure that the situation around Ukraine does not lead to a military confrontation. This was stated by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in an interview with Defense One published on Tuesday, December 7.
"I will not speculate about what could have happened in this case. I would just say that first of all our goal is to make sure that this does not happen. To work with foreign partners and allies to convey to Russia that this is really a bad idea," he said, answering a question about what actions the United States would take in the event of an alleged possible invasion by Russia.
The Pentagon chief also noted that delineating the "red lines" of the United States in relation to Ukraine in front of the Russian Federation will only worsen the problem.
Earlier in the day, the official representative of the EU Foreign Policy Service, Peter Stano, said that the EU does not accept any aggression against Ukraine and will respond harshly if Russia tries to carry out an attack on it.
On the eve of the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin sees clearly aggressive rhetoric of the West on Ukraine and media stuffing on the allegedly planned invasion of Russia in this country. According to him, the tension in Ukraine can be removed only by obtaining a guarantee that Kiev has refused a possible military solution to the Donbass problem by force.
On the same day, Peskov noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would listen with great interest to US President Joe Biden's proposals on Ukraine during the December 7 talks. Peskov added that after the talks, it will be possible to understand how much the proposals of the American side can relieve tension.
On December 6, the press secretary of the DPR delegation in the contact group Vladislav Moskovsky noted that in order to achieve peace in the Donbass, Kiev should conduct a direct dialogue with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, and not with Moscow.
Earlier, on December 4, the American newspaper The Washington Post, citing officials in the US administration, reported that Russia in early 2022 allegedly intends to invade Ukraine, involving "up to 175 thousand military." The publication referred to satellite images and reported that the Russian forces are concentrated in four points.
On November 21, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov stressed that the West is artificially whipping up hysteria with its statements about Russia's alleged preparation for an attack on Ukraine. According to him, provocations are not excluded, and NATO countries should stop "pumping Ukraine with modern weapons."
