London\Moscow, Europe Brief News – NATO asks Europe to diversify its energy supplies as UK warns of a likely invasion of Ukraine by the Russian forces.
Russia continues to gather troops around the border of Ukraine and until now 120,000 soldiers have gathered in the territory. Along with this, the Russian state asks that the western defense alliance must withdraw their soldiers and weapons from the area.
U.S officials said on Saturday that Russia’s military accumulation has been trained to deal with any casualties of any conflict.
However, Russian officials denied the rumors and clarified that they do not intend to attack Ukraine as of yet but asked NATO to clarify whether it intends key security commitments, after earlier saying that the alliance`s responses to its questions did not go far enough.
Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on state television and said “if they do not intend to do so, then they should explain why as this will be a key question in determining our future proposals”
The United States of America however says that they are not planning to leave the bar of Ukraine and eastern Europe anytime soon but are ready to negotiate on terms like arms control and confidence-building measures.
The US officials further said that they are waiting to hear from Russia on the matter.
The European Union depends mostly on Russia for gas supply and further hindrance can possibly cause massive energy crises in Europe.
On the matter, NATO secretary-general Jens Stolen Berg said “we are concerned about the energy situation in Europe because it demonstrates the vulnerability of being too dependent on one supplier of natural gas and that’s the reason why NATO allies agree that we need to work and focus on diversification of supplies”
Further Britain and the US continue to carry out sanctions plans for Russia. British officials said on Sunday that they would most likely expand the scope of their possible sanctions against the Russian president Vladimir Putin and the very state of Russia.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told BBC television “We think it’s highly likely that he is looking to invade Ukraine. That is why we’re doing all we can through deterrence and diplomacy, to urge him to desist,”
To conclude British prime minister Boris Johnson continues to urge Russia to forget about the invasion so that it does not face deadly sanctions.
