Washington: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that he has canceled a meeting with his Russian counterpart in Geneva after Russia recognized the separatist regions of Ukraine as an independent territory.
Blinken told reporters on Tuesday that Russia’s action shows that it is not serious about adopting a diplomatic route to resolve the current crisis. That’s why he has canceled a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday. Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize the independence of Ukraine’s Donbas region violates international law.
He said the deployment of Russian troops there was the beginning of an offensive. The foreign minister, however, expressed hope for a peaceful solution through diplomacy, saying he did not think the meeting with Lavrov would prove fruitful at this point in time.
