Russia assures the US that it does not intend to attack Ukraine

The representatives of United States and Russia Meeting this Monday in Geneva, they concluded the meeting, maintaining their initial proposals and with the sole agreement of continuing to dialogue.

The Russian representative, the Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Riabkov, has reiterated to the American delegation that Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine despite the alarm caused by the increase in Russian troops in the border area.

“There is no reason to fear any kind of escalation,” Riabkov said in statements to the press after the meeting. Riabkov has described the talks as “difficult, long, very professional, deep, concrete and without attempts to avoid the contentious issues.”

“We believe that the Americans have taken the Russian proposals very seriously and have studied them in depth,” he added.

For her part, the American Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, head of the US delegation, explained that they have rejected “proposals that the United States simply cannot contemplate” such as the Russian proposal of that Ukraine does not join NATO or for the alliance to end security cooperation with Kiev.

“We are not going to allow anyone to attack NATO’s open door policy that has always been fundamental to the alliance,” Sherman explained in the post-meeting press conference.

“We are not going to give up bilateral cooperation with sovereign states that wish to collaborate with the United States and we will not make decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine; about Europe without Europe; on NATO without NATO “, has riveted.

Thus, both parties have lowered expectations of important milestones in these contacts. “Today there has been a dialogue to understand each other better and also our priorities. It is not what you could call a negotiation,” Sherman pointed out.

Riabkov stressed that the tone of the contacts “gives rise to optimism (…), but the main questions remain in the air and we do not see that the Americans understand the need to make decisions that can satisfy us.”

Sherman explained that the possibility of reactivating the Medium-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which the United States withdrew in 2019 after years of accusing Moscow of non-compliance, has been discussed.

Thus, Washington has raised address the location of medium-range missiles and it has expressed its willingness to address “formulas to establish reciprocal limits on the size and scope of military maneuvers.”

Of the more than 70,000 US troops stationed in Europe, approximately 6,000 are deployed in eastern Europe, mostly on a rotating basis, including about 4,000 in Poland. Other NATO countries also have thousands of troops on rotating deployments in the region to reinforce the alliance’s eastern flank.