MOSCOW (Dispatches) - Russian
President Vladimir Putin says Ukraine’s in the country’s east looks like a “genocide”.
Putin’s remarks, which came on Thursday amid rising tensions between Russia and West, were aimed at addressing the issue of discrimination against Russian speakers beyond Russia’s borders, many of whom live in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
“I have to say that Russophobia is a first step toward genocide,” the Russian leader said.
“We see and know what is happening in the Donbass. It certainly looks like genocide,” he added, referring to the conflict zone in the east of the country.
The comments came in the wake of U.S. President Joe Biden’s talks with Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the heads of other countries on Russia’s borders concerned over a purported threat of Russian military action against Ukraine.
Tensions have been growing in recent months as Russia has amassed troops on the border with Ukraine. Moscow says its posture is purely defensive and comes in response to increased NATO activity there.
Meanwhile, Biden has threatened the Russian leader with crippling sanctions, including “strong economic and other measures,” if Russia takes any military action against Ukraine.
Ukraine claims that it has offered a series of peace proposals, including prisoner swaps, the reopening of a checkpoint, and the expanding of a joint communications center, but Moscow has rejected them.
“Unfortunately, all initiatives of the Ukrainian side were rejected by the Russian Federation under contrived pretexts,” read a statement by Ukraine’s delegation to the so-called Trilateral Contact Group (TCG).
Russia said in response that Kiev had submitted “absolutely absurd” proposals.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also accused Ukraine of moving heavy artillery toward the front line of fighting with ethnic Russians in the east and failing to engage in a peace process.
Ukraine’s military has been fighting ethnic Russians in the country’s east since 2014. The conflict has cost some 13,000 lives so far. Kiev accuses Russia of aiding the ethnic Russians, an allegation that Moscow has denied.

Russian Fighter Jets Escort NATO
Warplanes Over Black Sea

Russia’s military has escorted five French and U.S. military aircraft over the Black Sea and away from its border, it said, as tensions mounted over the conflict in Ukraine.
The defense ministry said it had ordered three of its Su-27 fighters to deploy over the Black Sea “to identify air targets and prevent the violation of the state border of the Russian Federation.”
The ministry said its crews had identified French Mirage 2000 and Rafale fighters, U.S. CL-600 Artemis and RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, and a French KC-135 refueling aircraft.
It said the French and American planes had reversed course once the Russian jets deployed and that the Western aircraft had not crossed the Russian border.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russia said it had dispatched planes to escort three French military planes flying near its borders in the Black Sea.
The defense ministry said its pilots again escorted French Mirage 2000 and Rafale jets after stopping them from violating the Russian border.
That incident followed another last week when Russia said a “catastrophe” was avoided when a Russian passenger plane dived to avoid a NATO reconnaissance aircraft that crossed its path above the Black Sea.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says the escalation of tensions between Moscow and Washington over the situation around Ukraine could culminate in a repeat of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that pushed the world to the brink of a full-scale nuclear war.
Ryabkov made the comment when asked by a reporter if rising tensions over Ukraine could turn into something resembling the Cold War standoff between the United States and the former Soviet Union some six decades ago.
“You know, it really could come to that,” Ryabkov was quoted by Russia’s Interfax news agency as saying. “If things continue as they are, it is entirely possible by the logic of events to suddenly wake up and see yourself in something similar.”
The Cuban crisis was sparked by the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles on the Caribbean island and prompted the United States to impose a naval blockade to prevent Moscow shipping in more.