British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had a meeting with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for tense talks on the Ukraine crisis.
Lavrov described the meeting with Truss as “speaking to a deaf person.” Truss has shot back, saying she was “not mute,” and says she got the UK’s position across during the meeting.
The Foreign Office missed its own Russia sanctions law deadline. It had said the tougher sanctions regime would be in place by February 10, ironically then missing the deadline on the same day Truss met with Lavrov.
During the meeting, Truss warned that if Russia did invade Ukraine, there would be massive consequences. Truss said the reality is that the international community cannot ignore the 100,000 Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.
In an icy press conference following the meeting, Truss said that if Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainians would fight, and it would descend into a long and drawn-out conflict. She also warned of severe sanctions targeting individuals and institutions from the UK and its allies.
Lavrov said that the two sides found very little common ground and that there was no secret or trust in the talks. “Just slogans shouted from the tribunes,” Lavrov said as he expressed his disappointment. He also said that British-Russian relations were at their lowest point in years.
Lavrov commented that the U.S. and the U.K. may be up to something if the countries are evacuating staffers from embassies in Ukraine. The UK has said it did so because of a “growing threat” from Russia.
Truss is not the only one who has attempted a diplomatic path with Russia as formal diplomatic talks have stalled. French President Emmanuel Macron went to Moscow this week on a similar mission, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Truss’s meeting is part of a blitz of British diplomacy with Russian counterparts. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace will travel to Moscow to meet with the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at the end of this week.
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