German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has arrived in Ukraine in the latest diplomatic push aimed at preventing a feared Russian invasion.

Monday’s visit comes as Western countries withdraw staff from their embassies in Kyiv, with many of them also urging their citizens to leave immediately.

Meanwhile, United States President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart,  Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have reiterated their commitment to pursuing diplomacy to ease tensions, as Washington’s national security adviser warned that Moscow was looking to find a “pretext” for an attack.

Russia says ties with US are ‘on the floor’
Relations between Moscow and Washington are “lying on the floor”, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who said there were certain channels for dialogue but that ties in other areas were strained.

“The heads of state are in dialogue, there is dialogue on other fronts,” RIA cited Peskov as saying in an interview.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Biden have been in contact by phone on Saturday. “Just a couple of years ago there was zero dialogue, there were no such contacts whatsoever,” Peskov said.

“But on the rest, unfortunately, in bilateral relations one can only talk about negatives. We are at a very, very low point.”

Source: Al Jazeera 

BDST: 1419 HRS, FEB 14, 2022
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