US and Russia to hold talks on Ukraine in potential sign ‘diplomacy is not dead’

The US and Russian foreign ministers will hold talks in Geneva on Friday in a development that a US official said suggested that “perhaps diplomacy is not dead” in the efforts to fend off a new Russian attack on Ukraine.

“We’re now at a stage where Russia at any time could launch an attack on Ukraine,” said the White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki. “Russian military plans to begin activities several weeks before a military invasion is something we’ve been watching closely and our assessment has been that could happen anytime between mid-January and mid-February,” a senior state department official said.

“We are willing to listen to their concerns but we will not compromise on core principles. We must remain clear-eyed about the prospects of progress but … will make every effort to reach an agreement.” The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has not said definitely if the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany would be suspended if Russia does attack, and there are reports that the threat of cutting Russia off from the Swift international payments system may have been quietly shelved.“The aim being to really hinder and restrict Russia’s access to the global economy, so all those things – access to capital, access to banking – they remain on the table,” the diplomat said.

“This is a country that knows how to fight, but my worry is that Putin is living in some hermit hole, having been convinced by a small set of bleary-eyed advisers that he’ll be greeted as a liberator when he heads for the Dnieper.”

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