Russia says Ukraine talks hit ‘dead end’

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GBNEWS24DESK//

Russia said on Thursday it was hitting a dead end in its efforts to persuade the West to bar Ukraine from joining NATO and roll back decades of alliance expansion in Europe, and threatened unspecified consequences in response.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by TASS news agency as saying Russian military specialists were providing options to President Vladimir Putin in case the situation around Ukraine worsens, but diplomacy must be given a chance.

He said talks with the United States in Geneva on Monday and with NATO in Brussels on Wednesday had shown there was a “dead end or difference of approaches”, and he saw no reason to sit down again in the coming days to re-start the same discussions.

Russia has forced the United States and its allies to the negotiating table by assembling around 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine, while denying it plans to invade.

It gave a stark assessment of this week’s diplomacy before it had even finished, as talks were under way in Vienna on Thursday at the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. (OSCE).

“If we don’t hear constructive response to our proposals within reasonable timeframe & aggressive behaviour towards (Russia) continues, we’ll have to take necessary measures to ensure strategic balance and eliminate unacceptable threats to our national security,” the Russian mission to the OSCE said on Twitter, quoting its Ambassador Alexander Lukashevich.

Poland’s foreign minister said in Vienna that Europe was closer to war than any time in the last 30 years and the U.S. envoy said the West should not give in to blackmail.

Russia says that after decades of NATO expansion it is determined to draw red lines and stop the alliance from admitting Ukraine as a member or basing missiles there.

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