The tension is sky high. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to authorize the formal annexation of four Ukrainian regions to the Russian Federation and warned that the tsar could follow up on his nuclear threats: “He makes the decisions. . There is no oversight of Putin,” the secretary said in an interview with CNN.
But stoking the nuclear threat “will not help defuse the situation in Ukraine, it will only add fuel to the fire”. The Chinese Foreign Ministry is responding to the US alert. “Beijing calls on all parties to show restraint and to support diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement,” said a press release from Russia’s Ria Novosti agency.
