Sharjah 24 – AFP: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Thursday that Russia risked reviving Europe's dangerous Cold War era of division as it threatens Ukraine.
Speaking in Berlin a day before talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Blinken said that by demanding that Ukraine not enter NATO, Russia was violating the principle that nations can make their own decisions.
"To allow Russia to violate those principles with impunity would drag us all back to a much more dangerous and unstable time, when this continent, and this city, were divided in two... with the threat of all-out war hanging over everyone's heads," he said.
"It would also send a message to others around the world that these principles are expendable," he said.
"It's bigger than a conflict between two countries, and it's bigger than a clash between Russia and NATO. It's a crisis with global consequences. And it requires global attention and action."
Blinken warned of devastating destruction from an invasion, following eight years of a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
"The human toll of renewed aggression by Russia would be many magnitudes higher than what we've seen to date," he said.
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