Moscow: With war clouds gathered in Ukraine, international diplomacy entered overdrive on Monday with the French and Russian president to meet in Moscow and Chancellor Germany headed to the White House to meet US leaders Joe Biden.
Also Monday, German foreign ministers, Czech, Slovak and Austria are expected in Kyiv, who have understated US warnings that Moscow has increased preparation for a major attack to Ukraine.
US officials said the Kremlin had collected 110,000 troops along the border with pro-Western neighbors but intelligence assessments had not yet determined whether President Vladimir Putin had decided to attack.
They said Russia was on its track to gather large enough strength – around 150,000 soldiers – for a full-scale invasion in mid-February.
Such strength will be able to take the capital of Kyiv in a matter of 48 hours in an attack that will kill up to 50,000 civilians, 25,000 Ukrainian troops and 10,000 Russian troops and trigger floods of refugees of up to five million people, especially to Poland, officials added.
Above potential human costs, Ukraine is afraid of further damage to the economy that has struggled.
And if Moscow attacks Ukraine it can face retaliation for Nord Stream 2 pipes – regulated to double the supply of natural gas from Russia to Germany – with Berlin threatening to block it.
Russia seeks guarantees from NATO that Ukraine will not enter the alliance and want a block to attract the strength of member countries in Eastern Europe.
‘Apocalyptic prediction’
Moscow denied that it planned to attack Ukraine, and Advisor President Kyiv said the opportunity for diplomatic solutions to the crisis remained “substantially higher than the threat of further escalation”.
On Twitter, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tried to calm tensions, saying: “Don’t believe apocalyptic predictions. Various capital has a different scenario, but Ukraine is ready for anything.”
President Emmanuel Macron from France, who currently holds the presidency of the European Union’s round, will be in Moscow on Monday and Kyiv on Tuesday to sustain efforts to increase the crisis.
He is expected to encourage a jammed peace plan for celebration conflicts with Russian-supported separatists in East Ukraine.
The trip will be a political gamble for Macron, which faces the challenge of re-election in April.
Also on Monday, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet with Biden in Washington.
Biden has reacted to the buildup of Russian forces by offering 3,000 American troops to improve the eastern wing of NATO, with a group of troops promised to arrive in Poland on Sunday.
But US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Fox News Sunday that Biden “did not send troops to start war or fight with Russia in Ukraine”.
“We have sent troops to Europe to defend the NATO region,” he said.
Scholz said Sunday that Berlin was ready to send extra troops to Baltic besides 500 soldiers had been placed in Lithuania under NATO operations.
While he was in Washington, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock, would be in Kyiv along with Czech colleagues, Slovakia and Austria for a two-day visit.
Scholtz will be in Moscow and Kyiv next week for talks with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
