US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to meet in Europe next week to discuss the situation in resolving the Ukrainian crisis. He announced his proposal on Thursday, February 17, at a meeting of the UN Security Council.
“Today I sent a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposing that we meet next week in Europe as a follow-up to our talks in recent weeks to discuss steps we could take to resolve this crisis without conflict,” Blinken said.
He added that Washington also offers Moscow meetings in the format of the RF-NATO Council and the OSCE, which could become the basis for a summit of key leaders in the context of de-escalation to reach mutual understanding on key security issues.
Earlier that day, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that the United States ignored the package nature of the security guarantees proposed by Russia, from which “convenient” topics were deliberately chosen in the direction of creating advantages for the United States and its allies. In the response transmitted to Washington, the Russian side, in particular, stressed the unacceptability of the demands to withdraw troops from certain regions of Russia. A written response on security assurances was delivered today in Moscow to Ambassador John Sullivan.
Western politicians and media representatives continue to spread numerous speculations about possible Russian aggression against Ukraine. The Russian side has repeatedly refuted such statements, emphasizing that it has no plans to invade a neighboring country. On February 12, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, said that the propaganda campaign launched by the United States and its allies about “Russian aggression” against Ukraine pursues provocative goals, thereby encouraging the authorities in Kiev to sabotage the Minsk agreements and harmful attempts to resolve by force “Problems of Donbass”.
#Secretary #State #Blinken #invited #Lavrov #meet #Europe