“We’re ready to make progress at the negotiating table,” said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Washington:
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States does not believe Russia has decided to invade Ukraine but is prepared no matter which path it takes.
“We’re ready,” Sullivan told reporters after a week of talks between the United States, its Western allies and Russia.
“We stand ready to make progress at the negotiating table … and we stand ready to take the necessary and appropriate steps to protect allies, support our partners and respond forcefully against any possible naked aggression.”
Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops on its border with Ukraine as it demands assurances that NATO will not expand its alliance eastward.
“The intelligence community has not made an assessment that the Russians have definitively decided to take a military action in Ukraine,” Mr. Sullivan said.
“So when things are going right now, Russia has a chance to come to the table.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led talks in Geneva with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, in an interview on Thursday, did not rule out that Moscow would send forces to its allies Venezuela or Cuba. if diplomacy fails.
“I don’t want to confirm that … nor rule it out,” he said.
Mr. Sullivan called the remarks “bla bla” and said Russia did not comment in the discussions.
“If Russia goes in that direction, we’ll deal with it completely,” Mr. Sullivan said.
The United States and the Soviet Union were then considered to have come closest to nuclear war in 1962 when Moscow deployed ballistic missiles to Cuba, triggering a diplomatic crisis.
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