Blinken: US hasn't seen signs Russia is serious in talks with Ukraine
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he has not seen signs the talks between Ukraine and Russia are “moving forward in an effective way” because the US has not seen “signs of real seriousness” by Russia.
“There is what Russia says, and there is what Russia does. We’re focused on the latter,” said Blinken at a joint press conference with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.
Blinken cautioned that Russia saying it would be reducing hostilities around Kyiv could be “a means by which Russia once again is trying to deflect and deceive people into thinking it’s not doing what it is doing.”
“If they somehow believe that an effort to subjugate “only,” in quotation marks, the eastern part of Ukraine and the southern part of Ukraine can succeed, then once again they are profoundly fooling themselves,” said Blinken.
Blinken called for Russia to “end the aggression now, stop firing, pull its forces back and of course engage in talks.”
Moscow said it will "drastically reduce military activity" on two fronts — Kyiv and Chernihiv — according to the Russian defense ministry, following in-person talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. Follow here for live news updates.Follow here for live news updates.
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Ukraine invited to join meeting of NATO foreign ministers next week
Ukraine and a number of non-NATO countries have been invited to attend part of a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers next week, according to a statement from the military alliance headquartered in Brussels.
NATO said “the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Australia, Finland, Georgia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Sweden and Ukraine, as well as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs” will attend one session of the meeting on April 7.
Some of ministers “may attend via video link,” the statement added.
Foreign ministers from the 30 NATO countries will convene for the second time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The session follows last week’s high-level meeting of NATO leaders for an extraordinary summit on the crisis.