Kremlin says Biden threats risk destabilising situation further

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the remark after US President Joe Biden predicted Russia would make a move on Ukraine and Moscow would pay for a full-scale invasion. PHOTO: REUTERS

MOSCOW (REUTERS) - The Kremlin said on Thursday (Jan 20) that United States President Joe Biden's warning of possible disastrous consequences for Russia would not help reduce soaring tensions over Ukraine and could even destabilise the situation further.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the remark after Mr Biden predicted on Wednesday that Russia would make a move on Ukraine and said Moscow would pay dearly for a full-scale invasion.

A Russian military build-up near Ukraine and a barrage of threatening rhetoric have rattled the West in recent weeks, sparking fears Moscow may use military force to try to stop Ukraine moving any closer to the West and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) alliance.

Moscow vehemently denies such plans, but has threatened an unspecified military-technical response if the West does not take seriously a set of security demands it has made, including to put an end to Nato's eastward expansion.

Asked about Mr Biden's comments, Mr Peskov said Russia had been receiving similar warnings for at least a month.

"We believe that they in no way contribute to defusing the tension that has now arisen in Europe and, moreover, can contribute to the destabilisation of the situation," he said.

Despite repeated recent statements from Kiev to the contrary, Mr Peskov also said Moscow feared the sanctions threats by the US might embolden Kiev to try to resolve an eight-year conflict with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine by force.

"We are concerned about this," he said on a conference call with reporters.

The Kremlin spokesman declined to comment on a parliamentary proposal by a group of lawmakers to appeal to President Vladimir Putin to recognise two pro-Russian breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent states.

The proposal is likely to be interpreted in the West as part of a Russian pressure campaign, but Mr Peskov said it was a lawmakers' initiative that still needed to be voted on and that he, therefore, could not comment.

On Thursday, Ukraine said it sees no deviation from US policy in Mr Biden's remark that Russia could bear a lower cost for an "incursion" rather than for an "invasion" of Ukraine.

Mr Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, said Ukraine welcomed the fact that Mr Biden had signalled that there would be a coordinated Western response in the event of Russia making a move on Ukraine.

"It is definitely not worth evaluating the words spoken the day before as something separate from the integral policy of the American administration," Mr Podolyak wrote in a WhatsApp message to Reuters.

Mr Biden's comments at a White House news conference injected more uncertainty into how the West would respond should Mr Putin order an attack on Ukraine, prompting the White House later to seek to clarify what Mr Biden meant.

"What was important for Ukrainian society to hear? The fact that Western states have a common understanding that any negative scenario in relation to Ukraine or in general in Europe will receive a coordinated, sufficient and sensitive response," Mr Podolyak said.

"At the same time, it is important to understand that diplomatic efforts at various levels continue, and de-escalation steps are now the main goal of these efforts."

Mr Biden's top diplomat Antony Blinken travelled to Kiev in a show of support for Ukraine this week. He flew to Berlin for more talks on Thursday and is due to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Friday.

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