"Drumbeat of war is sounding loud" - U.S

Following a week's worth of intense diplomacy between the Western allies and Russia over Ukraine have hit a deadlock, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"... At the present time, we’re facing a crisis in European security. The drumbeat of war is sounding loud and the rhetoric has gotten rather shrill," the U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter told reporters in a special briefing on Thursday.

Diplomats in both Washington and Vienna sounded a pessimistic note over the talks following the latest meeting with Russians in Vienna, which was the third session that the U.S. and allies hoped could spur Moscow to pursue a path of "de-escalation and diplomacy" over tension along Ukraine's borders.

"There’s close to 100,000 troops on the Russian side of its border with Ukraine... Their presence and the live-fire measures being carried out are raising many questions about Moscow’s intentions," Carpenter added. "We have to take this very seriously... We have to prepare for the eventuality that there could be an escalation."

As for the next step, Carpenter announced a "revitalized dialogue" that was proposed by Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, the OSCE chairman, at the OSCE.  "We strongly welcomed that dialogue, and I must say, so did the overwhelming number of participating states around the table," Karpenter said, adding that, "we very much believe we should have an open and honest dialogue where any state can articulate its security concerns."

Per Carpenter, the OSCE is "the right place" to have this dialogue. "It is inclusive. It includes 57 participating states, including all of the NATO Allies, all of the EU member states, Russia, Ukraine, and all of Russia’s neighbors."

Speaking on the Polish chairmanship’s challenges going forward, he also highlighted "other conflicts" in the OSCE area.

"We have the Transnistrian conflict. We have the conflicts in Georgia, in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. And then the situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, where we have just had clashes on the border over the last couple days. So unfortunately there are a lot of conflicts in different parts of the OSCE space, and those are all areas that are dealt with, by the way, by the OSCE and so those will have to be addressed going forward." he added.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.