US, Russia fail to reach agreement over Ukraine at a high-level meetings in Geneva

The US has dismissed Russia’s demands that NATO roll up the welcome mat to former states of the Soviet Union.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The US has dismissed Russia’s ­demands that NATO roll up the welcome mat to former Soviet Union states, as the two former Cold War superpowers struggle to reach an agreement over Ukraine’s future at high-level meetings in Geneva.

In a face-to-face talks that ­latest nearly eight hours on Monday, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov that Russia must return the 100,000 troops it has amassed on the border with Ukraine back “to the barracks” before the US would negotiate.

“Today was a discussion … It was not what you call a negotiation,” Ms Sherman said.

“One doesn’t send 100,000 troops to a border just to exercise, it’s extraordinary and … clearly meant to send a message,” she said after the meeting, reflecting US and European concerns that Russia intended to invade Ukraine, finishing a takeover it began in 2014 by annexing the Crimean peninsula.

“We had serious, straightforward, business like, candid discussions [but] we have a long way to go.”

Mr Ryabkov played down the prospect of an invasion. “There is no reason to fear some kind of ­escalatory scenario,” he said after the meeting.

“We had the feeling that the American side took the Russian proposals very seriously and studied them deeply.”

It was the first of three high-level meetings among the US, Russia, NATO and European ­allies scheduled this week, designed to avoid war over Ukraine, which the US has promised to support, at least financially, if it is attacked.

“We will not forgo bilateral co-operation with sovereign states that wish to work with the United States. And we will not make ­decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine, about Europe without Europe, or about NATO without NATO,” Ms Sherman said.

In a phone call last month Russian President Vladimir Putin warned US counterpart Joe Biden that the US risked a “complete rupture” between the two Cold War superpowers if it imposed new sanctions to dissuade Moscow from invading Ukraine.

Russia issued a sweeping set of demands as a prelude to formal negotiations, including guarantees that NATO would not expand further, and a bar on new US military bases in former territories of the Soviet Union.

The US rejected those ­demands on Monday in Geneva, but Ms Sherman said the US would be willing to take “reciprocal action”, including over “the ­future of certain missile systems in Europe” and the “size and scope of military exercises”.

“We will not allow anyone to slam closed NATO’s open-door policy, which has always been central to the NATO alliance,” Ms Sherman said on a conference call.

Ms Sherman said the US ­offered to restart negotiations over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was abandoned in 2019 after Russia violated its terms.

“We agree nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought,” she said.

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

“Russia has a stark choice to make,” Ms Sherman said, reiterating the US threat that Russia would face punishment “beyond what it faced in 2014” if it invaded Ukraine, referring to sanctions the West imposed after Russia’s seizure of Crimea.

The US has threatened sanctions on Russian financial institutions and trade, along with extra US troops in Europe and further assistance to the Ukraine, refusing to give specifics so as not to undermine its negotiating position.

“If Russia walks away, it may be apparent they were never serious about pursuing diplomacy at all,” Ms Sherman said.

US diplomats will face off with Russian officials again in Brussels and Vienna later this week, at meetings that will include key ­European allies.

The US is also at loggerheads with the Russian government over the proliferation of malware and cyber crime, which the US alleges occurs with the tacit endorsement if not encouragement of the Russian government.