Russia received in this Wednesday () the written response from the United States its proposals for security guarantees to prevent the expansion of NATO, the Western military alliance, and the installation of offensive weapons near its borders, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.
The answer was delivered to Russian Deputy Minister Alexandr Grushkó by the US Ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan. “On 26 January, Russian Vice Chancellor A. Grushkó received the US ambassador in Moscow, John Sullivan, at the latter’s request,” said the official note.
During the meeting, which, according to the Russian press, lasted about half an hour, the American diplomat delivered the written response to the proposals on security in Europe that Russia demanded from the US at the end of the year
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, declared that the responses delivered in Moscow “set a serious diplomatic path, should Russia choose to do so,” according to the Washington Post.
Blinken explained that the written response included proposals to improve “reciprocal transparency” between Russia and the West regarding “force posture in Ukraine” and military exercises in the region, as well as of propositions that address system allocation s in Europe and arms control, such as “our interest in a follow-on agreement to the new START treaty, which covers all nuclear weapons.”
Regarding Russian demands on NATO, Blinken said that the alliance’s “open-door principles” were reiterated, that is, the requirement to stop its expansion.
Russia is also now waiting for the alliance’s response in what is a key week for diplomatic efforts aimed at preventing a Russian attack or invasion of Ukraine, on whose border it accumulates more than 100 a thousand soldiers.
This Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia expected a “constructive” response from the US and NATO to its demands.“If there is no constructive response and the West continues its aggressive course, such and such as the president (Vladimir Putin) said, we will take the respective response measures”, warned Lavrov.
Russia had previously said that it would take “necessary military-technical” measures in the event of a Western refusal to address security in Europe with an emphasis on Russian demands.The security guarantees demanded by Russia include the containment of the expansion of the alliance, in particular to Ukraine and Georgia, the cessation of all military cooperation with the former Soviet republics and the withdrawal of NATO troops and weapons to the positions they held before 1971. Russia specifically proposed a draft treaty to the US and an agreement to NATO.
With regard to the US, Moscow proposes that Washington discard the sending of nuclear weapons outside the borders of both countries and also the return to its silos of weapons already deployed before the binding document that it proposes came into force.
Both sides would also commit to destroying the existing infrastructure for this abroad, in addition to to stop carrying out nuclear tests and train civilian and military experts from other countries. “In a nuclear war there can be no winners,” Moscow said in its proposal.
The draft treaty refers to several agreements signed between 1989 and 1989 by the Soviet Union and the United States, although the Kremlin denies that its initiative represents “a review of the results of the end of the Cold War”.
Group asks for Brazilian support to Ukraine
In a statement, Ukrainian deputy Sviatoslav Yurash, chairman of the Ukraine-Brazil Interparliamentary Friendship Group, informed that articulations are being made so that Brazil also intercedes for the solution of the crisis in the European country.
Last weekend, descendants of Ukrainians in Brazil spread on social networks the hashtags #STANDWITHUKRAINE and #STOPPUTINNOW, from a campaign organized by the World Congress of Ukrainians.
In addition, according to the statement, Vitório Sorotiuk, president of the Ukrainian-Brazilian Central Representation, called on Brazilians of Ukrainian descent to send requests to Kátia Abreu and Aécio Neves, presidents of the Foreign Relations committees of the Federal Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. , respectively, for Brazil to support Ukraine during the crisis.
Yurash also highlighted that the Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan São João Batista, Dom Volodêmer Koubetch, made an appeal for the Catholic Churches of Brazil (Latin Rite and Eastern Rites) to unite in prayers for peace in Eastern Europe.