The U.S. has delivered its reply to recent Russian demands for sweeping security guarantees, including a withdrawal of NATO forces from Eastern Europe and hard assurances that Ukraine will never join NATO, POLITICO reports.
In parallel, NATO delivered its own written response to a separate set of demands that the Russians had made to the alliance.
Moscow issued its demands in the form of proposed security treaties following an outcry by the U.S. and other Western powers over a Russian military mobilization on the Ukrainian border involving upwards of 100,000 troops as well as tanks, artillery and other sophisticated weaponry.
“Our responses were fully coordinated with Ukraine and our European allies and partners,” U.S. Secretary of Antony Blinken said in remarks. But, he noted, “we’re not releasing the document publicly.”
NATO’s responses had similarly been done “in parallel with the United States,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in separate remarks from Brussels.
