“It’s too early to say whether the Russians are willing to negotiate seriously.” White House spokesman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday. The United States and Russia met on Monday in the Swiss city of Geneva to discuss tensions on the Russia-Ukraine border and European security architecture.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met her Russian counterpart Ryabkov on Monday for diplomatic negotiations. It lasted eight hours, but no rapprochement was reportedly reached on the Ukraine issue. Both parties indicated their desire to continue the dialogue.
Psaki warned Tuesday that it was too early to say whether Russia was serious about negotiating. The spokesman said the Kremlin might abuse negotiations to “pretend that diplomacy is not working” and continue its “aggressive actions”.
The West accuses Moscow of preparing an attack on neighboring Ukraine. Russia responded that the army’s deployment in the border region was merely a response to the increasingly hostile NATO presence in an area that, according to the Russians, fell within their sphere of influence. Moscow insists that there are no plans to invade Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Moscow continues to strongly oppose Ukraine’s possible entry into NATO. Psaki stressed that the relationship between Ukraine and NATO concerns “only Ukraine and its 30 NATO allies.”
