(Moscow) The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday evening that the United States ambassador to Russia had handed it Washington’s response to Russian demands for withdrawal from NATO from Eastern Europe, amid the crisis Ukrainian.
Posted at 12:51 p.m.
US Ambassador John Sullivan “handed over the US administration’s written response to the draft bilateral treaty on security guarantees previously presented by the Russian side” to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, said Russian diplomacy in a statement.
Washington’s response to Moscow offers “a serious diplomatic avenue if Russia wants it”, said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, whose message to Moscow reiterated that “Ukraine can choose its alliances”. He said he was ready to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the coming days.
Simultaneously, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced a press conference at 1 p.m. EST and he will present the Alliance’s response on this occasion, the same sources said.
For Washington, the prospect of a Russian military incursion into Ukraine is increasingly likely because for weeks, tens of thousands of soldiers have been deployed on the Ukrainian border.
The Kremlin denies any warmongering, but conditions a de-escalation on treaties guaranteeing the non-enlargement of NATO, and a de facto retreat from the Alliance in Eastern Europe. Unacceptable, say Westerners.
Washington had nevertheless promised a written response to Russian demands.
When the document was delivered to Moscow, a meeting between Russian, Ukrainian, French and German negotiators was underway in Paris and an address by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was expected in Washington.
Earlier, the US Embassy in Kiev on Wednesday “urged” US citizens in Ukraine to leave the country without delay due to the “increased” threat of a Russian invasion.
Eastern Ukraine has since 2014 been embroiled in a war between Kiev forces and pro-Russian separatists of which Russia, which annexed the Crimean peninsula the same year, is widely seen as the military and financial sponsor.