Russia should not close the U.S. embassy despite the crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine because the world’s two biggest nuclear powers must continue to talk, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow said on Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month quipped that he would like to dedicate Taylor Swift’s ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ to Mr Putin.

Asked about that remark, John J. Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador appointed by President Donald Trump said, “We also will never break up entirely.”

When asked by TASS if the analogy meant that the embassies could be closed, Mr Sullivan said, “They can – there is that possibility, although I think it would be a big mistake. As I understand it, the Russian government has mentioned the variant of severing diplomatic relations.”

He added, “The only reason I can think that the United States might be forced to close its embassy would be if it became unsafe to continue its work.”

In an apparent attempt to send a message to the Kremlin, Mr Sullivan told Russia’s state TASS news agency that Washington and Moscow should not simply break off diplomatic relations.

“We must preserve the ability to speak to each other,” Mr Sullivan said.

President Vladimir Putin has cast the invasion of Ukraine as a turning point in Russian history, a revolt against the hegemony of the U.S., which the Kremlin chief said had humiliated Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Despite the crises, spy scandals, and brinkmanship of the cold war, relations between Moscow and Washington have not been broken off since the U.S. established ties with the Soviet Union in 1933.

Although Russia stated that its post-Soviet dalliance with the West was over and that it would turn eastwards.

Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry has called in the Moscow bureau chiefs of U.S. media outlets to discuss on Monday what it said are the repercussions of the U.S. actions.

(Reuters/NAN)