Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has predicted a ‘large-scale’ war with Russia if the superpower attempts to occupy the industrial city of Kharkiv – which he believes is a target due to its large Russian-speaking population.
The stark warning came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted there have been ‘no breakthroughs’ in crunch talks with his country’s former Cold War rival in a bid to prevent an imminent war with Ukraine.
Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, is the former Soviet republic’s second biggest city with a population of about 1.4 million, and Zelenskiy believes it is a ‘feasible’ target for Putin.
He told the Washington Post: ‘I will say realistically if Russia decides to enhance their escalation, of course they are going to do this on those territories where historically there are people who used to have family links to Russia.
‘Kharkiv, which is under Ukraine government control, could be occupied. Russia needs a pretext: They will say that they are protecting the Russian-speaking population.’
Meetings will continue between the US and Russia next week, with the former warning the latter that it must choose between the ‘path of diplomacy’ or the ‘path of conflict and condemnation’ as the threat of invasion grows with 100,000 troops stationed on the Ukraine border.
Blinken has promised a written response to Russian security demands and is not ruling out a presidential meeting, although he appeared to reject Moscow’s request to ban Ukraine from joining NATO at today’s 90-minute discussion with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva.
Read the full story in Daily Mail
