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US-Russian talks on the Ukrainian crisis will begin Monday in Geneva, after “complicated” preliminary discussions yesterday, amid US and Russian pessimism that an agreement will be reached.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov announced that he had “complicated” discussions on Sunday evening with his US counterpart Wendy Sherman in Geneva, ahead of the start of a week of high-risk diplomatic talks aimed at defused the explosive crisis over Ukraine.
“The talks were complicated, they could not be easy,” Ryabkov was quoted by the Russian “Interfax” news agency as saying after the two-hour working dinner.
Ryabkov also described the talks as “serious”, while negotiations continue on Monday, adding, “I think we will not waste time tomorrow (Monday).”
Ryabkov had said earlier that Russia is heading to Geneva with a clear mission, which is to obtain the guarantees it demands.
He added that his country would not make any concessions, regardless of the threats and pressures, which he said the West constantly practiced.
The Russian official played down the possibility of these talks succeeding, and said that his country might resort to other means to ensure balance in the event of no agreement.
In turn, Sherman affirmed, during the working dinner, “the United States’ support for international principles (related to) sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the freedom of sovereign states to choose their alliances,” according to a statement by the US State Department.
The diplomatic week continues with a meeting between NATO and Russia on Wednesday in Brussels, and then a meeting next Thursday in Vienna with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in order to engage the Europeans who fear their marginalization.
But the RIA news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying that it was very possible that diplomatic efforts would end after one meeting.
American pessimism
For his part, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken ruled out any breakthroughs on the Ukraine file during the talks scheduled for Monday with Russia in Geneva.
He said that the status of US forces in Europe is not up for discussion.
In an interview with CNN, Blinken expressed Washington’s readiness to resolve differences and avoid confrontation with Moscow.
Western countries and Kiev accuse Russia of mobilizing about 100,000 soldiers at the borders of Ukraine in preparation for a possible invasion, and has threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with “enormous” and unprecedented sanctions if he attacks his neighbor.
These measures may amount to preventing Russia from dealing with the global financial system or preventing the operation of the gas pipeline “Nord Stream 2” that Moscow so strongly wants.
But the Russian president – who has held talks with his American counterpart Joe Biden twice since the start of this new crisis – considered that imposing new sanctions would be a “fatal mistake”, and in turn threatened a “military and technical response” if his opponents continued “this hostile approach.”
The Kremlin asserts that the West is provoking Russia by deploying military forces on its borders or arming the Ukrainian army, which is fighting pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbass in eastern Ukraine.
It calls for a broad agreement to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, and to withdraw all US forces from the countries located in the far east of the alliance’s borders.
But the Americans assert that they are not ready to reduce the number of their forces in Poland or the Baltic states, but rather threaten to strengthen their presence there in the event of a Russian attack, and impose severe sanctions.
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