Top US, Russia diplomats to hold talks on Ukraine: Live news | Ukraine-Russia crisis News
Following a tense UNSC meeting on Ukraine, Blinken and Lavrov will make another attempt at diplomacy.
Washington and Moscow’s top diplomats plan to talk by phone on the Ukraine crisis in another attempt at diplomacy.
The call between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, expected later on Tuesday, comes a day after a fractious United Nations Security Council meeting in New York.
Washington’s ambassador to the council warned the situation in Europe is “urgent and dangerous”, while Moscow’s envoy accused the US and its Western allies of “whipping up tensions”.
Russia has fuelled fears of war by massing more than 100,000 troops at the Ukraine border but says it has no plans to invade. Instead, it accuses NATO of undermining the region’s security and wants the alliance to withdraw from Eastern Europe and block Ukraine from membership.
The US and NATO have ruled out these demands.
Here are all the latest updates:
Zelenskyy pledges to expand Ukrainian army
Ukraine will increase the size of its armed forces by 100,000 people over three years, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.
Addressing Ukraine’s parliament, Zelenskyy told legislators to stay united and not sow panic about the threat of a Russian military offensive.
He also said he hoped the date of another round of peace talks with Russia, France and Germany would be agreed soon.
Ukraine also enlarged its military following Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
‘We are not going to back away’: Russia’s US embassy
Russia’s embassy in Washington says Moscow will not back down in the face of sanctions threats from the US and its Western allies over Ukraine.
“We are not going to back away and stand at attention, listening to the threats of US sanctions,” the embassy said in a post on Facebook, adding that it is “Washington, not Moscow, that generates tensions”.
UK reiterates sanctions warning
The United Kingdom has again warned the Russian president.
“The critical message that Vladimir Putin needs to be getting and is getting because of the role that this prime minister has taken is: There will be severe economic costs if he pursues an invasion of Ukraine,” UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told Times Radio.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was expected to call Putin on Monday but was mired in scandal at home after a report into alleged lockdown-breaking parties was published.
Asked if Johnson cancelled the call with Putin, Raab said he did not know, as a government statement said on Tuesday: “In an important week for diplomacy, the PM will step up diplomatic efforts and hopes to speak President Putin and other leaders this week.”
Russia denies replying to US counter-proposals
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko has denied reports that Moscow gave the US a written response to Washington’s counter-proposals on its security demands, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
A State Department spokesperson said on Monday that the US has received a written follow-up from Russia on the matter.
