Russia's invasion of Ukraine could happen in a very short time frame. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken still hopes that Russia will be able to stick to a peaceful way of resolving the situation.
This is reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing Reuters.
Specifically, at a meeting with diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, Blinken said he hoped Russia would stick to the diplomatic and peaceful path after his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"As you all know very, very well, we've been paying close attention to Ukraine over the last couple of months because of the significant Russian force buildup that we've seen near the Ukrainian border," he said.
According to him, the Russian buildup has been "without provocation or reason."
"We know that there are plans to increase these forces even more in a very short time, and this gives President Putin the opportunity, also in a very short time, to take further aggressive actions against Ukraine," Blinken added.
As a reminder, he previously stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin has the ability to take steps to de-escalate.
Blinken also noted that leaving Russian aggression unpunished would open a "Pandora's Box" .