Russia and US take tougher stances before more talks on Ukraine
Moscow and Washington both took uncompromising stands Tuesday ahead of more talks amid a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine — with the US rebuffing a demand to halt NATO expansion and the Kremlin said it will quickly see if it is worthwhile to even keep negotiating.
At the talks in Geneva on Monday, Russia insisted on guarantees precluding NATO’s expansion to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations and demanded to roll back the military alliance’s deployments in eastern Europe. The US firmly rejected the demands as a nonstarter.
“We will not allow anyone to slam NATO’s open-door policy shut,” said US ambassador Julianne Smith, the country’s envoy to the alliance, setting a tough tone for the next talks with Moscow and ruling out any concessions on the alliance's eastward expansion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the Geneva talks as “open, comprehensive and direct,” but emphasised that Moscow wants quick results.
”We see no significant reason for optimism,” he told reporters.
Peskov said Russia-NATO talks in Brussels on Wednesday and the OSCE meeting in Vienna on Thursday would show whether further negotiations are worthwhile.
“It will become clear in what direction and how to proceed and if it makes sense," he said. “We absolutely wouldn’t accept dragging this process out endlessly".
Smith said "not a single ally inside the NATO alliance is willing to budge or negotiate anything as it relates to NATO’s open-door policy.”
“We stand firm in pushing back on security proposals that are simply nonstarters," she told reporters. “There’s widespread unity and consensus across the alliance on the challenge that sits before us.”
The US estimates Russia has amassed about 100,000 troops near Ukraine, a buildup that has stoked fears of
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