MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- Moscow on Tuesday rejected new talks on Ukraine unless the West responds to its demands, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to fly to Kyiv in a show of support.
A week of talks in Geneva, Brussels and Vienna last week failed to ease tensions, with Russia insisting its demands for sweeping security guarantees -- including a permanent ban on Ukraine joining NATO -- be taken seriously.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that there would be no further negotiations until the West gives it proper answers.
“We are now awaiting responses to these proposals -- as we were promised -- in order to continue negotiations,” he said at a joint press conference with visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. “Let’s hope these talks will continue,” Lavrov said.
Washington has outright rejected the demands, which also include limits on allied deployments in former Warsaw Pact allies like Poland and the ex-Soviet Baltic states that joined NATO after the Cold War.
The State Department announced that Blinken would fly to Ukraine and meet Wednesday with President Volodymyr Zelensky, to “reinforce the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
Russia and Ukraine’s neighbor Belarus on Tuesday launched snap military exercises.
The Belarusian defense ministry said it was hosting the combat readiness drills because of the continuing “aggravation” of military tensions “including at the western and southern borders of the Republic of Belarus.”
Ukraine borders Belarus to the south and NATO member Poland to the west.
Russian negotiators met separately this month with delegations from the United States, NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in meetings that failed to produce any concrete results.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced in parliament on Monday that Britain is sending weapons to Ukraine as part of a package that would help Kyiv secure its borders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday described the announcement of the shipments as “extremely dangerous” and “not conducive to reducing tensions”.
In a visit to Kiev on Monday, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators promised to provide arms and weapons for Ukraine, while threatening Russia with sanctions once again.
“We will impose crippling economic sanctions, but more important we will give the people of Ukraine the arms, lethal arms they need to defend their lives and livelihoods,” Senator Richard Blumenthal said.
These weapons could include Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger missiles, small arms and boats, he said.
Peskov hit back at the provocative statements, saying the Western powers have brought Moscow to an intolerable “red line”.