Will anyone save Ukraine?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
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Summary
Diplomatic efforts to avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine have failed to ease tensions — and that has huge stakes for Ukraine, for Europe and for America’s standing in the world.
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The U.S. State Department has announced that the U.S. will close its embassy in Ukraine’s capital, with remaining embassy personnel being relocated closer to the border with Poland because of mounting U.S. fears of an invasion by Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to leave the diplomatic door open, but as national security reporter Shane Harris explains, talks aren’t producing any breakthroughs.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So, the State Department announced today that they are temporarily relocating our embassy, |
| 0:08.9 | operations in Ukraine, from our embassy in Kiev to Lviv due to the dramatic acceleration |
| 0:16.1 | in the build-up of Russian forces. |
| 0:21.0 | That's White House Deputy Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre. |
| 0:24.7 | On Monday afternoon, she gave her briefing to reporters on the situation in Ukraine, and |
| 0:29.5 | the increasing fears that an invasion by Russia is imminent. |
| 0:33.7 | A core team of embassy staff is remaining in Ukraine to engage with the Ukrainian government, |
| 0:40.0 | coordinating diplomatic efforts, and diplomacy to de-escalate the crisis continues. |
| 0:49.2 | So Shane, how are those diplomatic efforts going? |
| 0:53.5 | Not great. |
| 0:54.5 | They are not producing any breakthroughs. |
| 0:57.0 | That's Shane Harris. He covers national security for the post. |
| 1:00.6 | You have seen the chancellor of Germany Olaf Schultz on his own kind of shuttle mission. |
| 1:06.7 | He was in Kiev on Monday. |
| 1:08.6 | He is going to meet with President Putin on Tuesday, at least he's scheduled to. |
| 1:13.5 | We have a big security conference coming up in Munich, Germany that may provide some |
| 1:17.1 | more opportunity for diplomatic meetings. |
| 1:19.7 | In Sergei Lavrov, he's the Foreign Minister of Russia reported to Vladimir Putin today |
| 1:24.8 | in remarks that were televised that Russia is open to more discussion and more diplomacy. |
| 1:30.3 | That window appears to be closing, but it is open right now. |
| 1:33.8 | It's just that no one has been able to find the diplomatic solution to this because the |
| 1:38.7 | sides are still so much at an impasse. |
... |
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