Round two of US-Russia talks over Ukraine and security have started on Friday, AFP reports.
Blinken and Lavrov convene in Geneva over Ukraine crisis
STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 21, ARTSAKHPRESS: Anthony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov, respectively Washington and Moscow's top diplomats, are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
These new talks, which seek to de-escalate the crisis at the Ukrainian border, came 11 days after the first round of discussions in the Swiss city yielded little result.
As the source said, Russia has amassed some 100,000 troops on the border and is being accused by the US of planning an invasion, which it denies.
Instead, it accuses the West of plotting “provocations” in Ukraine, citing the delivery of weapons to the country by British military transports in recent days.
Russia wants binding security guarantees, including a permanent prohibition on Ukrainian membership in NATO, to which Kyiv aspires, and the removal of most of the US and allied military presence in eastern Europe. Washington, Brussels and NATO have rejected these demands and warned that any attack on Ukraine would have costly consequences.
