GENEVA (Reuters) – The United States and Russia began difficult talks on the Ukraine crisis in Geneva on Monday, but diplomats make no secret of their pessimism.
As part of these discussions, Washington hopes to rule out any risk of another Russian invasion of Ukraine without making concessions on Moscow’s many security demands.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov warned this weekend that it was quite possible that diplomatic dialogue would end at the first meeting.
For his part, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said he did not expect significant progress during the discussions, yet the stakes are high.
“I don’t think we’ll have any breakthroughs in the coming week,” Antony Blinken told CNN on Sunday.
Negotiations began Monday at the US diplomatic mission in Geneva as relations between Washington and Moscow have never been so strained since the Cold War.
Discussions will then continue in Brussels and then in Vienna.
US Assistant Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on Twitter from Geneva that the United States would listen to Russia’s concerns and that Washington would share its own.
On the other hand, she warned that the United States would not discuss security in Europe without its European allies.
NEARLY 100,000 RUSSIAN SOLDIERS AMOUNTED
Russia has amassed nearly 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, a situation Washington and Kiev analyze as a possible prelude to an invasion of Ukraine, eight years after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
Moscow denies having plans to launch an offensive against Ukraine and denounces the aggressive and provocative attitude of NATO and Ukraine which has drawn closer to the Western powers and which wishes to join the Atlantic alliance.
Last month, Russia presented a whole set of demands, which included stopping NATO’s expansion and ending its activity in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
The United States and NATO have rejected much of Moscow’s demands.
“Of course, we will not make any concessions under pressure,” said Sergei Riabkov, who heads the Russian delegation in Geneva.
US President Joe Biden has repeatedly warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the United States and its European allies will impose unprecedented sanctions on Moscow if Russia launches an offensive on Ukraine.
(Report Emma Farge and Tom Balmforth, French version Matthieu Protard, edited by Blandine Hénault)