At Munich, Germany's Annalena Baerbock says 'not a Ukraine crisis, this is Russia crisis'

Amid soaring tension between Russia and Ukraine, diplomats from the Western countries held an urgent conference on the ongoing conflict between the two nations. While addressing the conference in Munich, City in Germany, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed regret that Russian leaders declined to attend the Munich security conference and added, "This is not a Ukraine crisis... this is a Russia crisis."

It is worth mentioning is the world's leading forum for debating international security policy. It is a venue for diplomatic initiatives to address the world's most pressing security concerns. As the ongoing tension between Moscow and Kyiv have reached a new height, the meeting is considered very crucial to avert any war-like situation. The ongoing meeting will also be attended by US Vice President Kamala Harris, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

"Particularly in the current, extremely threatening situation, it would have been important to also meet Russian representatives in Munich," Baerbock said. Even tiny steps toward peace would be "better than a big step toward war," she added. Notably, on Tuesday, it was speculated that the tension between both countries would not soar further after the Russian Defence Ministry said some of their troops returned to their bases.

However, fear of war again mounted after US President Joe Biden claimed that the United States has reason to believe Russia is “engaged in a false flag operation” to give it a pretext to invade Ukraine. And there are plenty of hotspots and potential flashpoints around Ukraine that could trigger a full-scale military engagement.  

NATO Defence Ministers express concern over Russia's military build-up

According to the US, more than 1,50,000 Russian troops are still near the Ukrainian border. Though Moscow claimed the assembling of troops was only meant for military and naval drills, western countries raised concerns that Moscow could use them to execute their plan. Reacting to the recent developments, the NATO Defence Ministers, in a statement expressed deep concern over Russia's "extremely large-scale, unprovoked, and unjustifiable military build-up" in and around Ukraine and Belarus. They also encouraged Russia to seek diplomacy and withdraw its forces from the Ukrainian border in accordance with international obligations as soon as possible.

Image: Twitter/@MunSecConf