- Lavrov, in a meeting with Putin, suggested Moscow keep talking with the US and its allies.
- Russia has not responded formally to several US offers on European military presence.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visits Kyiv on Monday and Moscow on Tuesday for talks.
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine will be moved out of Kyiv ahead of a feared Russian invasion, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday.
Blinken said the embassy would be temporarily relocated from the Ukrainian capital to Lviv in the western part of the country, near the border with Poland.
The news came hours after the Kremlin signaled Monday it is ready to keep talking with the West about security grievances that led to the current Ukraine crisis, offering hope that Russia might not invade its beleaguered neighbor within days as the U.S. and Europe increasingly fear.
On a last-ditch diplomatic trip, Germany’s chancellor said there are “no sensible reasons” for the buildup of more than 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders to the north, south and east, and he urged more dialogue. Britain’s prime minister said Europe is “on the edge of a precipice” — but added, “there is still time for President Putin to step back.”
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Despite warnings from Washington, London and elsewhere that Russian troops could move on Ukraine at a moment’s notice, Monday’s meeting between Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested otherwise.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke for nearly an hour about the potential of a Russian invasion of the eastern European country.
U.S. to temporarily move embassy in Ukraine out of Kyiv
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday called the relocation of the U.S. Embassy “prudent” in light of a dramatic buildup of Russian troops along Ukraine’s eastern border, but he stressed that the move would not undermine U.S. commitment or support to Ukraine.
“The embassy will remain engaged with the Ukrainian government, coordinating diplomatic engagement in Ukraine,” Blinken said in a statement. The U.S. is continuing diplomatic efforts to deescalate the crisis, he said.
“We look forward to returning our staff to the embassy as soon as conditions permit,” he said.
The United States said last week that it would evacuate the embassy in Kyiv as Western intelligence officials warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is increasingly imminent.
On Saturday, the U.S. ordered non-emergency staff at the embassy to leave Kyiv. The State Department had earlier ordered families of U.S. embassy staffers in Kyiv to leave, but had left it to the discretion of nonessential personnel if they wanted to depart.
– Michael Collins
Lavrov urges Putin to keep talking
At the session with Putin, Lavrov argued that Moscow should hold more talks with the U.S. and its allies despite their refusal to consider Russia’s main security demands.
Moscow, which denies it has any plans to invade Ukraine, wants Western guarantees that NATO won’t allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join as members. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe, demands flatly rejected by the West.
The talks “can’t go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage,” Lavrov said, noting that Washington has offered to conduct dialogue on limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures. Lavrov said possibilities for talks “are far from being exhausted.”
His comments, at an appearance orchestrated for TV cameras, seemed designed to send a message to the world about Putin’s own position: namely, that hopes for a diplomatic solution aren’t yet dead.
Putin noted the West could try to draw Russia into “endless talks” without conclusive results and questioned whether there is still a chance to reach agreement on Moscow’s key demands. Lavrov replied that his ministry wouldn’t allow the U.S. and its allies to stonewall Russia’s main requests.
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Scholz, Zelenskyy talk in Kyiv
Their meeting came as Germany’s chancellor began a trip to Kyiv and Moscow for a last-ditch attempt to head off a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine that some warn could be only days away.
During what could be a crucial week for Europe’s security, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine before heading to Moscow for talks with Putin on a high-stakes diplomatic foray.
After meeting Zelenskyy, Scholz urged Russia to show signs of de-escalation, and reiterated unspecified threats to Russia’s financial standing if it invades.
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“There are no sensible reasons for such a military deployment,” Scholz said. “No one should doubt the determination and preparedness of the EU, NATO, Germany and the United States” in case of an military offensive.
Zelenskyy said, “It is in Ukraine that the future of the European security architecture — of which our state is a part — is being decided today.”
Scholz will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
NATO troops, weapons get set
Some airlines canceled flights to Kyiv and troops unloaded shipments of weapons from NATO members.
NATO countries have also been building up forces in eastern Europe. Germany’s military said the first of 350 extra troops it is sending to bolster NATO forces in Lithuania were dispatched Monday. Lithuania moved diplomats’ families and some nonessential diplomatic workers out of Ukraine after the U.S. and others pulled most of their staff from embassies in Kyiv.
“It’s a big mistake that some embassies moved to western Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “It’s their decision, but ‘western Ukraine’ doesn’t exist. It’s united Ukraine. If something happens, God forbids, it (escalation) will be everywhere.”
The U.S. and its NATO allies have repeatedly warned Russia will pay a high price for any invasion — but they have sometimes struggled to present a united front. Scholz’s government, particularly, has been criticized for refusing to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine or spell out which sanctions it supports, raising questions about Berlin’s resolve. No new specifics emerged from his visit to Kyiv.
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So far, NATO’s warnings appear to have had little effect: Russia has only bolstered troops and weapons in the region and launched massive drills in its ally Belarus, which also neighbors Ukraine. The West fears that the drills, which run through Sunday, could be used by Moscow as a cover for an invasion from the north.
Russia has repeatedly brushed off the concerns, saying it has the right to deploy forces on its territory.
Is NATO without Ukraine a possibility?
One possible off ramp emerged this week: Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.K., Vadym Prystaiko, pointed at a possibility of Ukraine shelving its NATO bid — an objective that is written into its constitution — if it would avert war with Russia.
“We might — especially being threatened like that, blackmailed by that, and pushed to it,” Prystaiko told BBC Radio 5.
On Monday, Prystaiko appeared to back away from that, saying that “to avoid war we are ready for many concessions … but it has nothing to do with NATO, which is enshrined in the constitution.”
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Asked about the comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would welcome such a move but noted its quick repudiation by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.
Some lawmakers called for Prystaiko’s dismissal — but the fact the idea was raised at all suggests it is being discussed behind closed doors.
Meeting over Russian deployments
Meanwhile, a meeting will take place Tuesday by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on the Russian deployments. But it is unclear whether it could defuse tensions.
Some members of the OSCE mission monitoring a shaky cease-fire in eastern Ukraine have pulled out, and Russia-backed separatists allege their departure could facilitate provocations.
With the region on edge, Russia’s Defense Ministry protested to the U.S. Embassy’s military attaché Saturday what it said was a U.S. submarine in Russian waters near the Kuril Islands in the Pacific. Russia said the submarine initially ignored orders to leave, but left after the navy used unspecified “appropriate means.” The U.S. denied its ship ever entered Russian waters.
Asked by lawmakers Monday if the military could strike foreign warships that enter Russian waters, deputy General Staff chief Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov said it stands ready, but added such decisions are only made at the highest level.
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly leader was ousted by a popular uprising. Moscow responded by annexing the Crimean Peninsula and backing the separatists in the east, where fighting has killed over 14,000 people.
A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped halt large-scale battles, but regular skirmishes have continued, and efforts to reach a political settlement have stalled.
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Poland preps for refugees
Poland, the largest European Union nation to border Ukraine, is making preparations to accept Ukrainian refugees in the event of another Russian attack on that country. But the Polish government hopes that worst-case scenario can be averted.
Similar preparations are being made across the region, particularly in those nations which share borders with Ukraine.
As other countries draw down their diplomatic missions in Ukraine, Poland says it is for now keeping its diplomatic operations in place in case they are needed to facilitate a large-scale exit of Ukrainians.
Poland, which has welcomed large numbers of Ukrainian economic migrants in recent years, particularly after Russia’s incursions into Ukraine in 2014, has been making plans for weeks to accept refugees if it comes to that, said Marcin Przydacz, a deputy foreign minister.
While Poland has an image of being staunchly anti-refugee, that opposition is largely based on not wanting to take in large numbers of people of different religious and racial backgrounds.
Ukrainians — who like Poles are a Slavic people with a similar language and customs — have filled gaps in the labor market and have been largely welcomed in Poland in recent years.
Contributing: Matt Brown, USA TODAY; Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, and Jill Lawless in London, contributed to this report.
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