The US has rejected Russia's demands: there are no concessions regarding Ukraine
Blinken said Washington had forwarded in writing its official response to Moscow's demands, including a promise that Kiev would never join NATO: "There is a significant diplomatic path, if Russia chooses to do so."
News agencies
27/01/2022
Thursday, 27 January 2022, 08:04 Updated: 08:31
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"It remains for Russia to decide how to respond."
Blinking at a press conference in Washington, DC yesterday (Photo: Reuters, Brendan Smialowski)
The United
States has rejected Russia's demands to ban Ukraine from joining NATO, and the world is now awaiting the next move by Moscow, which has deployed about 100,000 troops at its neighboring borders.
Blinken stressed that no concessions had been made, but added that he offered Russia a "significant diplomatic path, if Russia chooses to do so." Join the North-Athenian Alliance.The document will not be made public, he said.
"There should be no doubt about the seriousness of our intent when it comes to diplomacy, and we are working with equal concentration and force to strengthen Ukraine's defense and prepare a united and swift response in response to further Russian aggression," the US Secretary of State warned.
"It remains for Russia to decide how to respond," he said.
"We are ready for any scenario."
He reiterated the warnings that any new military attack by Russia would be met with harsh Western sanctions.
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Russia has promised a "quick response".
Military exercise in Rostov Oblast, yesterday (Photo: Reuters)
Moscow has said it will learn Blinken's response, sent in coordination with NATO. Russia denies it plans to attack Ukraine, from which it has already annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, but has warned that joining NATO is a "red line" for it. Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that Moscow would take "rapid response" if the United States and its allies rejected its demands.
Washington's response was predictable, echoing what US and European officials have been saying for weeks. Russia's response to it could determine whether Europe's face of another war, which, according to US President Joe Biden, will be the largest since World War II.
Blinken noted that the United States sent three shipments of weapons to Ukraine this week, including anti-tank "Javelin" missiles, along with hundreds of tons of ammunition and other equipment.
He denied that there was a dispute within NATO between the United States and European countries over the desired response to Russia, which could cut off gas supplies to the continent if the West imposed paralyzing sanctions on it.
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