Western states should not cause panic in Ukraine: Turkiye's foreign minister

ANKARA

Western countries must guard against making statements that could cause panic over the situation in Ukraine, Turkiye's foreign minister said on Saturday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu’s remarks came barely a day after the US warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come “at any time.”

Such an invasion would not be right, but Western states should also be careful about statements that might sow panic, Cavusoglu said in televised remarks.

He added that it is necessary to be ready for a crisis between Russia and Ukraine but that Turkiye is not in a panic.

Moscow recently amassed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine, prompting fears that the Kremlin could be planning another military offensive against its ex-Soviet neighbor.

Russia has denied it is preparing to invade and accused Western countries of undermining its security by NATO’s expansion toward its borders.

The Kremlin also issued a list of security demands to the West, including a rollback of troop deployments from some ex-Soviet states and guarantees that Ukraine and Georgia would not join NATO.