This past Wednesday, in the run-up to Old Uncle Joe’s European trip to meet with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies to talk about the idea of new, more harsh, sanctions and various other efforts to try and hamper the Russian invasion force pushing into Ukraine, officials with the Russian government issued a warning that if NATO were to send any kind of soldiers from any of its member countries as a peacekeeping force in the defending country, then it would be “an extremely dangerous decision” and cause a “direct clash” between NATO and Russia.
These statements were seemingly in response to a proposal from Poland that called for NATO or any other international group to send in forces to work in a peacekeeping capacity.
Reuters stated this past week that in Kyiv, Ukraine, Poland’s ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski stated:
I think that it is necessary to have a peace mission – NATO, possibly some wider international structure – but a mission that will be able to defend itself, which will operate on Ukrainian territory.
As a response issued on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated to students and staff at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations that that idea would only lead to “the direct clash between the Russian and NATO armed forces that everyone has not only tried to avoid but said should not take place in principle.”
Reuters also went on to report that a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, criticized the proposal, stating, “It would be a very reckless and extremely dangerous decision.”
“He told reporters on a conference call that any possible contact between Russian and NATO forces ‘could have clear consequences that would be hard to repair,'” Reuters stated.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, a new series of sanctions and tactics aimed at pressuring China could come about as a result of these NATO meetings planned for this week:
The Biden administration is preparing new sanctions on most members of Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, according to U.S. officials. President Biden will use his meetings in Brussels this week to keep up pressure on China to not provide aid to Russia, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. At the meetings, the U.S. and allies are also expected to announce further sanctions against Russia.
Despite the continuous heavy assaults by Russia, the Journal went on to add that the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres seemed to indicate that diplomatic attempts were starting to gain traction.
“There is enough on the table to cease hostilities—now…and seriously negotiate—now,” claimed Guterres. He went on to state, “Sooner or later, it will have to move from the battlefield to the peace table.”
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