"We are ready to respond with force to a new Russian aggression. But a diplomatic solution is still possible, and preferable, if Russia chooses this path," he said before a week of talks between the West and Moscow .

Westerners and Ukrainians have for several weeks accused the Russians of amassing tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border for a potential invasion, and have clearly threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with "massive" and unprecedented sanctions. 'he attacked the neighboring country again.

Moscow, for its part, demands an agreement guaranteeing the end of NATO's enlargement at the gates of Russia.

"Russia now demands that the United States and NATO sign treaties to withdraw NATO forces stationed on the soil of allies in Central and Eastern Europe, and to prohibit Ukraine from joining NATO , and wants to involve us in a debate on NATO rather than to us (let us) concentrate on the hot topic which is its aggression against Ukraine. We will not let ourselves be distracted by that ", warned Antony Blinken.

"I think that it is certainly part of their strategy to present a list of absolutely inadmissible demands and then claim that the other side is not playing the game and use that as a justification for an aggression", the secretary of 'State.

"But the reality is that Russia knows very well what we cannot accept. And there are also files, subjects, on which we can dialogue."

Antony Blinken also warned against the possibility that Moscow "hatches a provocation or an incident and then uses it to justify military intervention, in the hope that when the world realizes its ruse, it will be too. late".

"The idea that Ukraine could be the aggressor in this situation is absurd," he added, recalling that the Russians annexed Crimea in 2014 in violation of international law, and had recently amassed "nearly 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border with plans to mobilize twice that force very quickly. "

© 2022 AFP