Blinken: 'Diplomatic path remains open' for Russia

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says a “diplomatic path remains open” to end the “crisis” between Russia and Ukraine, among the US claims that Moscow is planning an invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has rejected the US claims that it is preparing to invade Ukraine. 

Blinken told reporters on Sunday that he informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their phone call on Saturday that the crisis could be addressed through diplomatic means.

He added that US President Joe Biden also conveyed a similar message to President Vladimir Putin on Saturday when the two presidents spoke for about an hour amid elevated tensions.

“I spoke by phone last night with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, where I raised our serious concerns that Moscow may be considering launching a military attack against Ukraine in the coming days,” Blinken told reporters in Hawaii.

“I made clear, as President Biden did today in his conversation with President Putin, that a diplomatic path to resolving this crisis – a crisis created by the unprovoked massing of Russian forces all around Ukraine – that diplomatic path remains open,” he added.

This comes after Blinken on Saturday threatened Russia's foreign minister with a "resolute, massive, and united Transatlantic response" should the country decide to invade neighboring Ukraine.

Blinken’s threat came after the United States announced it will deploy 3,000 additional soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to Poland as part of NATO’s military buildup in eastern Europe, a move that is likely to increase further tensions with Russia.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday ordered the US troops be sent to Poland, increasing the number of American forces deployed to and repositioned to eastern Europe to 6,000.

This comes in an environment of massively heightened tensions, an intensive anti-Russian propaganda campaign by Washington, and deployment of forces and equipment throughout most of the former Warsaw Pact nations and three former Soviet republics that have joined NATO, with at least two others (Georgia and Ukraine) not yet admitted as formal members but who are involved in military cooperation, including hosting military assets, with the US and NATO.

Biden administration officials claimed Russia has assembled 110,000 troops along its border with Ukraine and is preparing for a "large-scale" invasion of the country, as the Biden administration keeps sending troops to eastern Europe to increase NATO military buildup there.

Kremlin: West’s warnings of imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine reach absurd levels

The Kremlin scoffs at the West

The Kremlin has scoffed at the West's propaganda campaign aimed at accusing Russia of planning to invade neighboring Ukraine, denouncing US' "peak hysteria" over this issue. 

The comments came through the Kremlin's top foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov, at a presser on Saturday, in which he discussed the contents of the phone call between Putin and Biden.

He said the phone call between the two leaders came against a backdrop of "hysteria" in the West about "a Russian invasion" that he said was absurd.

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