Russia tries to cast Western-backed Ukraine as aggressor, suggests disputed peace deal as path forward

“Russia is not a party to the conflict. Therefore, the main task is to force the Ukrainian authorities to fulfill their obligations,” Russia’s embassy in Washington said in a Facebook statement Wednesday. “The supply of American weapons to Ukrainian revenge-seekers only pushes them to a military solution of the problem with the Southeast of the country.” (The Kremlin has long denied any involvement in separatist regions.)

The statement is the latest effort by Moscow to paint Ukraine and its Western partners as the aggressor in the crisis, even as Russia masses more than 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine amid fears of a potential renewed invasion. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday that it’s the Russians who are “on an escalatory path.”

The United States has, however, signaled its support for the Normandy Format talks, which involve France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia, and aims to implement the 2015 agreement.

“We have encouraged full implementation by all parties of the Minsk agreements,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday. “The fact remains that one party to these agreements has been responsible for the vast majority of violations, but all parties need to adhere to the Minsk agreements as a way to de-escalate tensions, especially in this environment.”

Kyiv is fiercely resistant to adopting the accord, which was brokered after several military defeats and offers broad autonomy to rebel-held areas and amnesty to separatist fighters.

"The fulfillment of the Minsk agreement means [Ukraine’s] destruction,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told the Associated Press Monday.

Ukraine’s top diplomat said the country remains open to implementing the Minsk document, but only if the most objectionable terms are modified. Russia has refused to do so.

“We are ready to go, to proceed along lines of Minsk Agreements,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Wednesday. “But we will never accept the Russian implementation of the Minsk Agreements.”

Even as Washington and its allies continue to look for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, they’re also preparing for the worst — dispatching troops and military equipment to the region. Biden on Wednesday ordered the deployment of several thousand U.S. military personnel to reinforce NATO allies in Eastern Europe.

About 3,000 U.S. troops are expected to deploy, with some moving from permanent posts in Germany to NATO’s eastern flank in Romania, and others heading from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to establish a new headquarters in Germany and reinforce existing forces in Poland.

Russia has denied that it intends to invade Ukraine, but the Kremlin has sought assurances that Ukraine, which was once a Soviet state, will never be allowed to join NATO, whose members are bound to defend each other against attack. The Kremlin also called for the alliance’s forces to pull back from Eastern Europe.

European leaders continue to step up their diplomacy in a bid to avert a full-scale war. French President Emmanuel Macron indicated he may visit Moscow soon, after speaking to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, by telephone twice in under a week.

President Biden also spoke with Macron Wednesday, the White House said. The two leaders discussed coordinating diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, as well as “preparations to impose swift and severe economic costs on Russia should it further invade Ukraine,” according to a readout of the call.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has been criticized for not doing enough to respond to Russian aggression, also suggested Wednesday that he may soon travel to Moscow. No dates were provided for the potential trip, though some Ukrainian activists criticized the decision to visit Russia ahead of Ukraine.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in January traveled to Kyiv for discussions before meeting Russian leaders, in what was interpreted as a deliberate display of support for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s muscular approach to the Ukraine crisis — viewed by his backers as a sign of the newly assertive, unshackled “Global Britain” post-Brexit — continued to attract the ire of the Kremlin, with a Russian official describing British diplomacy as “absolutely worthless.”

Over the weekend, London had offered to send jets, warships and military specialists to support NATO’s eastern flank. Just days later, Britain scrambled Royal Air Force jets to intercept four Russian military aircraft near Scotland, though outside U.K. airspace.

As Ukrainian, U.S. and NATO officials debate the likelihood of a second Russian invasion, Ukrainians along the road to Kyiv are split on whether their homes will be in the path of potential tank convoys. Some have packed emergency bags in case the war comes, while others are optimistic that diplomacy will win out.

“I want to prepare for the worst scenario and escape somehow, if the war starts,” said Kateryna Ponomarenko, 39, who fled intense fighting in 2015 with her two sons, after explosions and gunfire in her town outside Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Pannett reported from Sydney. Alex Horton in Chernihiv, Ukraine, contributed to this article.