Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that NATO continues to reject the Russian proposals to ease tensions.

"The architecture of strategic stability is rapidly being destroyed, NATO refuses to constructively examine our proposals to de-escalate tensions and avoid dangerous incidents," Lavrov said at a press conference on Thursday.

The top Russian diplomat warned Washington against "drawing Ukraine into the geopolitical games of the United States," which will have serious repercussions and lead to “retaliatory measures to straighten out the military-strategic balance.”

Ignoring Russia’s legitimate concerns and drawing Ukraine into the US geopolitical games against the backdrop of the deployment of NATO forces on Russia’s borders will have serious repercussions and "will force us to take retaliatory measures to straighten out the military-strategic balance,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on the sidelines of the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Stockholm on Thursday.

Lavrov added that Russia needed "long-term security guarantees on our western borders, which should be viewed as an imperative requirement."

On his part, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday his country needs to hold direct talks with Moscow in order to end the war against Russian-backed forces in the eastern Donbas region.

"We must tell the truth that we will not be able to stop the war without direct negotiations with Russia, and today this has already been recognized by all, all external partners,” Zelensky said.

In a related context, Lavrov informed his British counterpart, Liz Truss, that Russia denounces the provocative statements by British officials toward the country.