US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Wednesday that “Washington prefers a diplomatic solution to reduce escalation between Moscow and Kiev.”
Price stressed that the US is considering with partners and allies the serious consequences that Russia would face if it invaded Ukraine.
Earlier, the White House said that President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky, in a phone call that the US and its allies would respond firmly if Russia invaded its western neighbor.
“Biden also assured Zelensky that the US supports resolving the Ukraine crisis through diplomatic efforts, including the high-level Russian-US talks scheduled to take place in Geneva on 9-10 January,” Presidential Spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a statement.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service accused the US and the United Kingdom of working to fuel the conflict between Russia and Ukraine through the Donbass region.
“The Americans and the British are artificially inflating the conflict in order to try to show Russia that it is responsible for all the problems that are growing on the Ukrainian border,” the press office of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service said in a press release.
It noted that the diplomatic corps of the EU’s countries is in confusion because it understands that the Americans and the British are artificially inflating the conflict in order to present Russia as the cause of all problems.
