Feb 15, 2022: According to a report by AFP, Russia appeared to open the door Monday to a diplomatic resolution of the deepening Ukraine standoff, as the U.S said it believed Vladimir Putin had yet to make a final decision on invading the ex-Soviet state.

As Russia ends some military exercises, signaling a possible easing of the crisis, the alert level in Washington remained high – with a senior official calling the threat of an attack “more real than ever.” As speculation mounted that Russian troops on the Ukrainian border might attack this week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was due to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday for talks with the Russian president – the latest in a series of visits by European leaders. 

Past visitors to Russia have repeatedly been told by leadership that the current crisis is the result of the United States and Western Europe ignoring Moscow’s legitimate security concerns.

However, late on Monday, a meeting between President Putin and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov seemed to signal a change in tone, with the latter stressing there was “always a chance” for agreement with the West over Ukraine.

Lavrov told Putin that exchanges with leaders in European capitals and Washington showed enough of an opening for progress on Russia’s goals to be worth pursuing, and worth continuing to which Putin replied, “fine.”

On the one hand there is hope of some de-escalation following the remarks while on the other, Washington continues to raise the alarm of an imminent equation saying Russia’s troop buildup along Ukraine’s border has multiplied and has along with some other countries shifted their embassy from Kyiv to a town on the western side along Poland’s border.

“It is a distinct possibility, perhaps more real than ever before, that Russia may decide to proceed with military action, with new Russian forces continuing to arrive at the Ukrainian border,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

In a video message issued on what was designed to be “Unity Day”, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to dismiss the suggestion of an invasion even as Washington announced the day of the invasion could be as near as Wednesday.

“They tell us that February 16 will be the day of the invasion. We will make this into Unity Day,” Zelensky said — urging his fellow countrymen to fly the national flag in defiance.

According to Western leadership, the deployment of Russian troops is the worst threat to the continent’s security since the Cold War, and have drawn up a weak package of economic sanctions in response to any attack on Ukraine – although Moscow has repeatedly said that they have no such plans.

Recent Russian military exercises, including with Belarus, where the U.S says Moscow has sent 30,000 troops for more than a week of exercises, have raised concerns – although Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin on Monday that some exercises are “ending.”

During yesterday’s visit to Kyiv, the German chancellor Olaf Scholz said there was no justification for Russia’s troop buildup. Zelensky meanwhile repeated that joining the NATO alliance would guarantee Ukraine’s survival — a key sticking point in negotiations between Russia and the West.

But as he prepared to head to Moscow, Scholz appealed to Russia to take up “offers of dialogue.”

Germany’s close business relations with Moscow and heavy reliance on Russian natural gas imports have however been a source of lingering concern for Kyiv’s pro-Western leaders and US President Joe Biden’s administration.

Even as the world waits for the diplomacy to bear fruit, some Ukrainian civilians living along Russia’s border have started digging trenches in anticipation of war, whereas in Moscow, people appear opposed to the idea. “People in the West do not understand that we are one people,” Pavel Kuleshov, a 65-year-old pensioner, told AFP, referring to Russians and Ukrainians. “Nobody wants a civil war.”

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