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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that if NATO sent peacekeepers into Ukraine in the midst of Russia’s invasion, it would lead to a direct military clash between Russian forces and the alliance.
“Sending NATO’s peacekeeping forces to Ukraine will lead to a direct clash between the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the alliance,” Lavrov said Wednesday morning, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Sunday ruled out the possibility of the United States participating in peacekeeping operations inside Ukraine, and said the Biden administration would not send U.S. troops to the country.
In this photo released by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ press service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pauses during his and Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Franca’s joint press conference following their talks in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, November 30, 2021.
(Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)
“The president has been very aware that we will not put American troops on the ground in Ukraine,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “We do not want to escalate this to a war with the United States.”
“But we will support our NATO allies,” she added. Biden “has made it clear that if there is an attack on any of our NATO allies, under Article 5, we will support these countries and defend these countries.”
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations nominee Linda Thomas-Greenfield will testify at the Senate Confirmation Hearing at Capitol Hill on Wednesday, January 27, 2021 in Washington. (Greg Nash / Pool via AP)
The Polish business Onet.Pl has reportedly gained access to a secret project in Poland’s National Ministry of Defense, which aims to deploy peacekeeping forces from a number of NATO countries to Ukraine. Warsaw is expected to officially present it at the March 24 NATO summit. The United States will not participate, but may accept a mission involving some other countries.
Slaughtered cars after a night air strike in the village of Bushiv, 40 kilometers west of Kiev, Ukraine, on Friday, March 4, 2022.
(AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky)
Lavrov’s warning suggests that Russia would view the presence of NATO’s peacekeeping forces as a military escalation and a cause of war against the alliance.
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The war has dragged on for about a month as Russia’s superior troops have encountered unexpectedly fierce Ukrainian resistance. The struggle for the southern port city of Mariupol has become increasingly fierce, while cities such as Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and its second city, Kharkiv, are actually under siege. Russia has also attacked cities in the western part of the country, not far from the border with Poland, where more than 2 million of Ukraine’s 3 million refugees have reportedly fled.