High-level diplomatic efforts intensify to ease Russia-Ukraine tensions

High-level diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions around Ukraine have been stepped up in recent weeks, with Western leaders engaging in rounds of meetings over the Ukraine-Russia crisis.

French President Emmanuel Macron this week is on a diplomatic tour of national capitals. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday to discuss the Ukraine crisis and security issue in Europe, before heading to the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev on Tuesday.

At a joint press conference with Putin following their hours-long talks in the Kremlin, Macron said that he believes there is still an opportunity to find a peaceful path for Europe, where new mechanisms are needed to ensure security and existing pacts are preserved.

Putin at the briefing said Russia's core concerns on security were ignored by the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), while the military alliance attempts to lecture Russia on where and how to place its armed forces.

Putin reiterated Russia's opposition to NATO's eastward expansion, adding that Kiev refuses to comply with the 2015 Minsk agreements on a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian issue and is even attempting to dismantle the deals.

Several Western countries have accused Moscow of having amassed troops near the Ukrainian border, stoking fears of a Russian "invasion."

Moscow denied the accusation, saying that Russia has the right to mobilize troops within its borders to defend its territory as NATO's activities constitute a threat to Russia's border security.

At a news conference with Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced his hope that the next meeting of leaders of the Normandy Four, which includes Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia, would take place "in the near future."

"An important step in this direction is the intensification of dialogue at the level of political advisers. We hope that the meeting in Paris, which took place on January 26, 2022, and the upcoming talks in Berlin will bring us closer to holding the Normandy Summit," Zelensky was quoted as saying by his press service.

In a meeting with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington on Monday, US President Joe Biden threatened to "bring an end to" Nord Stream 2, a key Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany, if Russia invades Ukraine.

On his first trip to Washington since becoming chancellor, Scholz said, "We will act together. And we will take all the necessary steps, and all the necessary steps will be done by all of us together."

Scholz will be in Moscow and Kiev next week for talks with Putin and Zelensky.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that Biden plans to engage with Macron "soon," adding that "we will continue to be in very close contact with our French counterparts" over the ongoing crisis, as Macron and Biden had spoken twice in the past week.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson discussed the crisis with Putin in a telephone conversation on February 2.

According to a statement published on the British government's website, the leaders agreed that an escalation of the situation was "in no one's interest."

The prime minister stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy, and the need to include Ukraine in talks, the statement said.

Johnson met with Zelensky on February 1 in Kiev, where the two leaders discussed several security issues, including Russia's military buildup along the border with Ukraine.

Some Ukrainian experts pinned their hopes on the high-level talks to defuse the tensions around Ukraine.

"The key goals of the parties are somewhat different, but there is a gradual convergence of the agendas," Igar Tyshkevich, an expert with the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, told Xinhua.