FAST FACTS
- Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the U.S. of interfering in his country’s internal affairs and seeking “a classic example of megaphone diplomacy.”
- Western officials fear Russia’s troop buildup could use Belarus as a jumping-off point to invade neighboring Ukraine, especially its capital, Kyiv, from the north.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken are expected to speak by phone Tuesday, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a call Tuesday to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, “further reiterated the U.S. commitment to Ukraine’ssovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the right of all countries to determine their own foreign policy and alliances,” according to the State Department.
“The Secretary urged immediate Russian de-escalation and the withdrawal of troops and equipment from Ukraine’s borders,” their statement added. “He emphasized that further invasion of Ukraine would be met with swift and severe consequences and urged Russia to pursue a diplomatic path.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the U.S. and its allies have “basically ignored” Russia’s security demands in relation to the ongoing situation in Ukraine.
In his first comments on the standoff with the West over Ukraine in more than a month, Putin said the Kremlin is still studying the U.S. and NATO’s response to the Russian security demands they received last week.
Those demands include a guarantee from NATO that it will not expand to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, refrain from deploying offensive weapons near Russia and for NATO to roll back deployments to Eastern Europe.
Putin told reporters in Moscow following a meeting with Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban that “it’s already clear and I said to the prime minister that Russian concerns were basically ignored – we didn’t see an adequate response to our key concerns.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.