Secretary of State antony Blinken meeting with the
Ukrainian president at the US embassy in Kiev as
tensions escalate over the possibility of war Blinken
arrived in the country this morning after Russia moved
more troops towards Ukraine. Russia has denied planning
to invade the neighboring country. But US officials
believe Moscow could attack at any point. So let's be
clear, our view is this is an extremely dangerous
situation where now at a stage where Russia could at
any point launch an attack in Ukraine and what
Secretary Blinken is going to go do is highlight very
clearly there is a diplomatic path forward. It is the
choice of President Putin and the Russians to make
whether they are going to suffer severe economic
consequences or not. Multiple talks with the U.S. And
NATO have also failed to de escalate the country's
growing military force at the Ukrainian border.
International correspondent Jul chapman joining us
live from Moscow, Julia. Good morning. What is the
latest on the state of tensions between Russia and
Ukraine and troop movement While things remain very
difficult. There has been no de escalation by Russian
troops since those talks happened last week. Indeed,
Ukrainian military officials believe that Russia is
nearing completion of its troop build up on the
Ukrainian border that's on the eastern side of Ukraine
and in the south on annexed Crimea. And at the same
time Russia is holding joint military exercises in
Belarus to Ukraine's north very near the Ukrainian
border as well. Those were unplanned exercise, NATO
says it had no warning of those drills and they believ
that they are larger than normal drills would be. So
certainly the feeling is that Ukraine is surrounded and
there are serious fears that Russia is preparing to
invade in the next month because military experts
that if it were to invade its neighbor, the best t
to do it would be in january february when the gr
is still frozen and it is more easy to roll tanks
across the border. So there are big fears that that is
imminent. Russia denies any suc plan, but it says it
will not deescalate tensions. I wants the West to meet
its security demands that it put forward last week. And
to your point following the winter is mud season in
which those tanks would be essentially stuck. So U.S.
Secretary of State Blinken visiting the Ukraine, how
might that change the calculus here Well, the idea is
to put as much backing behind Ukraine as possible to
show Russia that it does have partners that would not
stand by if Ukraine were invaded. There's been a really
big diplomatic push. The german foreign minister was in
Kiev on monday. And now Secretary Blinken is there as
well, reiterating U.S. Support for the government in
Kiev and warning Russia against any kind of military
intervention. Secretary Blinken say that it is
possible that Russia could be ready to move at any
moment and he has urged President Vladimir Putin
take the diplomatic and peaceful path. But certainly
there are still many issues between Russia and the West
that were not resolved in last week's talks. Um and the
feeling is that as much support needs to be offered to
Ukraine as possible in an effort to try to get Russia
to back down. So what do we expect the next few days
Well after Ukraine secretary Blinken will then travel
to Germany to meet with allies, including french
officials and british ones as well as german ones. And
that will all come ahead of his meeting on friday in
Geneva with Russian foreign Minister. Sergei Lavrov
This is a meeting at a higher level than the Russia US
talks that were held last week. The idea being to put
some fresh impetus into these diplomatic negotiati
as Russia is warning against all of the support that is
being given to Ukraine, the Deputy Foreign minister
said today that that threatens Russia's security. So
certainly it is very important to get these two foreign
ministers into the same room. This will be the last big
diplomatic push as Russia is waiting for written
responses to the security demands that it's put forward.
The U.S. Says those will be forthcoming by the end of
the week, Julia chapman live for us with the latest
from Moscow. Thanks so much