US ignoring Russia demands to have 'serious consequences': Lavrov
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Following the Geneva talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart Antony Blinken, Moscow says Lavrov told Blinken the US ignoring the Russian demands would have "serious consequences."
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, February 18, 2021 (AP)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned his US counterpart Antony Blinken that Washington continuing to ignore Moscow's security demands will have "serious consequences," the Russian foreign ministry said Friday in a statement following the talks.
Russia has been demanding a written commitment that Ukraine would never be able to join NATO and that the alliance would not place any military equipment in certain countries in the region surrounding Russia.
Lavrov and Blinken met in Geneva on Friday, and the Russian minister said the talks were useful and frank. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised to provide Moscow with a written response to its proposals on security guarantees.
Lavrov revealed that he had plans to contact Blinken after Moscow received its answers from the United States.
"Blinken was clearly informed that further ignorance of Russia's legitimate concerns" will have "the most serious consequences," the statement said.
The foreign ministry also went on to explain that the concerns were "related primarily to the ongoing military development by the United States and its NATO allies of the territory of Ukraine against the backdrop of a large-scale deployment of forces and means of the alliance near our borders."
However, the ministry said, this could be avoided if Washington was to respond positively to the Russian proposals.
"We expect to receive written article-by-article reaction of the US side next week," it stressed.
Russia is facing US-European allegations of a military buildup on its shared borders with Ukraine, and the two sides had already held talks in Geneva to sort out their differences.
The statement further explained that during the talks, the two sides focused on infighting in Ukraine, and they stressed the necessity of Kyiv implementing a full set of measures as quickly as possible to establish direct dialogue with the authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
