The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson said on Monday that in the near future a choice should be made: whether to supply more Russian hydrocarbons or to support Ukraine, peace and stability, amid tensions between Moscow and the West .
Ukraine , Ukraine , 16 , November , 2021 – Ukraine News
“We hope that our friends realize that they will soon have to choose between supplying more and more Russian hydrocarbons with giant new pipelines and defending Ukraine and upholding peace and stability,” Johnson said.
In a message to European countries that are heavily dependent on Russian gas, the prime minister said he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin could take a serious approach to restricting the supply of pipelines passing through Eastern Europe if the West announced its intention. to defend Ukraine.
“Therefore, when we say that we support the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine, it is not because we want to be at enmity with Russia, or because we want to surround or undermine this great country in some strategic way,” Johnson said.
Context
As Europe experiences an energy crisis, Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes that German authorities will soon certify the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline, which will supply more Russian gas to Europe’s largest economy. It will bypass transit countries, including Ukraine, which has a history of confrontation with Moscow over gas prices.
At the same time, on Monday, France and Germany warned Russia against damaging Ukraine’s territorial integrity amid a large-scale and unusual concentration of Russian troops on the country’s borders.
On November 15, Bloomberg reported that the United States and its European allies were preparing a response if Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian troops near the Ukrainian border
In late October, the media began to report that Russia was increasing its military forces on the border with Ukraine. This was reported by The Washington Post. Politico, in turn, published satellite images. They show a cluster of Russian army tanks near the town of Yelnya in the Smolensk region, about 250 km from the border with Ukraine.
The news has caused concern among some officials in the United States and Europe.
As it became known on November 6, US President Joe Biden sent CIA Chief Bill Burns to Moscow to warn the Kremlin that the United States was closely monitoring the build-up of troops near the border with Ukraine and to try to determine what Russia was doing.
The Pentagon has said it is monitoring the build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine’s borders.
Afterwards, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar noted that the current situation with the redeployment of Russian troops is being monitored by the Ukrainian military on a regular basis. Russia constantly deploys about 90,000 soldiers around the Ukrainian border and in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. According to her, Russia will not abandon its aggressive policy towards Ukraine and already in the winter, according to intelligence, Russia plans to increase the number of military contingents on the border with Ukraine.
At the same time, the press secretary of the President of Ukraine Serhiy Nikiforov stated that Ukraine has no confirmation of the information that Russia is again increasing the number of troops in the Crimea, ORDLO and near the Ukrainian borders. The Ministry of Defense calls these reports elements of psychological or propaganda pressure, according to the OPU.
Source: Ukrgate
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