President of Ukraine predicts 'large scale war' with Russia

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, is predicting war with Russia

A ‘large-scale’ war with Russia was predicted today, Friday, January 21, by Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the President of the Ukraine. Speaking with the Washington Post, he said he believes Vladimir Putin will try to occupy the industrial city of Kharkiv, due to it having a  large Russian-speaking population.

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, after crunch talks earlier today with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, in Geneva, admitted no breakthrough had been achieved in preventing any escalation between Ukraine and Russia.

Kharkiv, with a population of about 1.4 million, is the former Soviet republic’s second-biggest city, located in eastern Ukraine.

“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”, Zelenskiy told the Washington Post.

“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”, he added.

With 100,000 Russian troops sat near Ukraine’s border, tensions remain high, and talks will continue next week. “We didn’t expect any major breakthroughs to happen today, but I believe we are now on a clear path in terms of understanding each other’s concerns and each other’s positions”, Blinken told reporters.

He continued, “We anticipate that we will be able to share with Russia our concerns and ideas in more detail in writing next week, and we agreed to further discussions after that”.

Lavrov was non-committal, saying, “Antony Blinken agreed that we need to have a reasonable dialogue, and I hope emotions will decrease. I cannot say whether or not we are on the right track. We will know when we get an answer”.

“If we conclude, and the Russians conclude, that the best way to resolve things is through a further conversation between them, we’re certainly prepared to do that,’ Blinken said,  as reported by dailymail.co.uk.

◾️#Blinken ve #Lavrov görüşmesi başladı. pic.twitter.com/BwnMpfYnMm

— GİZLİ SERVİS (@gizliservis06) January 21, 2022

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