The administration of US President Joe Biden has prepared 18 different scenarios in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, US undersecretary for political affairs Victoria Nuland said in an interview for the Financial Times.
“I’m not going to preliminarily talk about 18 different scenarios. I’ll just say that we and our allies are ready to quickly inflict sharp pain if Russia takes any aggressive steps,” the diplomat said.
Nuland stressed that sanctions against Russia by the US and European countries might differ.
“Sometimes something is harder for us than for Europe, and sometimes it’s the other way around,” she said.
At the same time, the US diplomat stressed that Washington is negotiating with European allies regarding a possible response to Russia’s actions, which would consider the interests of Western states’ residents.
Commenting on the talks on security guarantees between the US and Russian delegations this week, Nuland said that the parties managed to hear each other’s concerns. Still, a serious discussion had not yet begun.
“At the moment, we have only heard fears from each other,” she said.
According to Nuland, the sides haven’t engaged in these negotiations without trying to reach an agreement. “Especially if they want these agreements to be legally binding, so we need more time.” she added.
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