US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met for talks in Geneva on Friday amid mounting fears that Russia could be about to invade Ukraine.
"This is a critical moment," Mr Blinken said in his opening remarks.
The US and Russia "don't expect to resolve our differences here today", he added, but hoped to test whether diplomacy was still a viable option.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Lavrov described the talks as open and useful.
Moscow has 100,000 troops near its borders with Ukraine, but denies planning to invade.
Across the table in a luxury Swiss hotel, Mr Blinken warned his Russian counterpart of a "united, swift and severe" response if Russia did take that step.
President Vladimir Putin has issued demands to the West which he says concern Russia's security, including that Ukraine be stopped from joining Nato.
He wants the Western defensive alliance to abandon military exercises and stop sending weapons to eastern Europe, which Moscow sees as its backyard.
At a press conference after the meeting, Mr Lavrov accused Nato of working against Russia. He reiterated Moscow's position that it has "never threatened the Ukrainian people" and has no plans to attack Ukraine.
The US will present Russia with a written response to its security red lines "next week", he added. Another meeting is expected to follow when Russia has examined it.
Mr Blinken told reporters the US is prepared to pursue possible means of addressing Russian concerns in the spirit of reciprocity.
Beforehand, analysts mooted this might include more transparency on military exercises in the region, or reviving restrictions on missiles in Europe. These rules were previously set out in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Cold War-era pact that the US scrapped in 2019, after accusing Russia of violating the deal.
Mr Blinken also urged Russia to stop its aggression towards Ukraine, saying the troop build-up gives it the ability to attack Ukraine from the south, east and north.
He said the US knows from experience that Moscow also has an "extensive playbook" of non-military ways of furthering its interests, including cyber attacks.
Mr Blinken said the talks also touched on Iran and negotiations over its nuclear capabilities, which he called an example of how the US and Russia can work together on security issues.
The talks between the two diplomats came just a day after Russia unveiled plans for naval drills involving more than 140 warships and more than 60 aircraft, seen as a show of strength.
Also on Thursday, the US warned that Russian intelligence officers had been recruiting current and former Ukrainian government officials to step in as a provisional government and cooperate with an occupying Russian force in the event of an invasion.
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two current Ukrainianmembers of parliament and two former government officials accused of being part of the plot.
Mr Blinken arrived in Geneva after a trip to Kyiv to show support for Ukraine, and talks with Britain, France and Germany in Berlin.
Several European nations have now moved to bolster Nato's military deployment in eastern Europe. Spain is sending warships to join Nato naval forces in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and Denmark also said it would send a frigate to the Baltic Sea.
French President Emmanuel Macron has offered to send troops to Romania.
Earlier this week, Britain announced it was supplying Ukraine with extra troops for training and defensive weapons.
In a speech on Friday, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called on Mr Putin to "desist and step back from Ukraine before he makes a massive strategic mistake" that would lead to terrible loss of life.
President Biden had triggered questions about the consistency of the US line on Ukraine on Wednesday, when he bleakly predicted that Russia "will move in" on Ukraine, but appeared to suggest a "minor incursion" could attract a weaker response from the US and its allies.
The message drew a rebuke from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who tweeted: "There are no minor incursions. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones."
Mr Biden then sought to clarify by saying any Russian troop movement across Ukraine's border would qualify as an invasion and that Moscow would "pay a heavy price".
US & Russia meet in Geneva - Barely even LOOKED at Each Other
H Turner
The meeting in Geneva between the US and Russia was scheduled to last two hours; it ended after only 90 minutes. This shows these are no negotiations for problem solving; only a final attempt to buy time. Last silence to hold your breath before the storm. After that meeting, the US said it is considering evacuating diplomat families from Ukraine "as a precaution" and Germany began moving Tanks out of storage.
The meeting began with a half-hearted handshake with US Secretary of State Blinken not even looking at Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, as shown above.
After the pleasantries, the two sides got down to business with Lavrov telling Blinken "I heard one of your last statements when you said you do not expect a breakthrough at these negotiations. We do not expect a breakthrough either. What we do expect is complete answers to our proposals."
Blinken, says "this is a critical moment" and that he "hopes we can test whether diplomacy remains open."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the Kremlin knew in advance that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would not bring answers to Russia's proposals on security guarantees for talks in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "We knew in advance that he was not going to hand over [answers on guarantees]. In fact, this meeting is meant for someone else," Peskov said. "We expect both Lavrov and Blinken to have the opportunity to exchange views and compare the understanding of the results of the three rounds of negotiations," he added.
The meeting ended after about 90 minutes
So . . . no progress. At all. See where this is going?
Blinken did tell Lavrov the US will respond to Russia's proposals by January 30 with . . . get this . . . . "some ideas." It seems to ME this is nothing more than an attempt by the US to buy time. They are shipping unbelievable amounts of weapons into Ukraine and have sortied quite a number of ships as well. They need time to get all that gear in place.
"Russia is ready to defend its legitimate security interests, but there are no grounds to take its actions as an attempt to form some kind of exclusive zone of influence" the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement released today in response to media questions received at the press conference of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
I see these talks as a mere formality, and a PR event. The truth is war was certain the moment NATO said they intend to continue encroaching on the Russian border.
Ukraine is nothing, this is about the bigger picture. Think the immovable object meeting the unstoppable force.
Russia can’t move, because there’s nowhere to move but deeper into their own territory. NATO has to continue because it’s owners won’t stop.
This is the impasse, and why everything now is about buying time and achieving the element of surprise. Either the US will conduct a major false flag or Russia will preemptively strike.
Putin will be finished if he doesn’t secure Russia.
Maybe a little delay for a week, but Putin didn't move all that hardware and manpower because he thought he might have a chance to intimidate the West with it. He knew from the start what eventually he was gonna have to do. He knows the US never lets anything be dictated to them. The US either wins big or loses big . The only thing anyone or any country especially the US ever understands without a doubt, is force.
Blinken told reporters, on Russia's security concerns, "US ready to take steps on a reciprocal basis."
Right. Sure. So ready he didn't even bother to bring written responses to Russia's written treaty proposals.
Lavrov says that "The Russian experience of dealing with the West on security issues is full with cases of broken promises." He's right.
It seems to me this issue has entered full dis-information mode. Lies on top of lies. Almost nothing that is said now, can be trusted. Want proof?
In a speech from Secretary Blinken, he said the US “will not treat the principles of sovereignty or territorial integrity, enshrined in the UN Charter and affirmed by the UN Security Council, as negotiable.” Sounds wonderful, right? Yet the US is currently illegally occupying a large part of Syria. It has no UN mandate to do so, and Damascus has not given it permission to be there. Also, Iraq's parliament has repeatedly asked the US to withdraw its troops, and Washington has refused.
More grand talk from Blinken. Let's look at what WE in the US have "done": it was the US that pulled out of Open Skies Treaty, not Russia. NATO beached the CFE, not Russia. And the US withdrew from the INF, not Russia. So whose deeds must be judged as "threatening?"
Ours.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did confirm "There are no dates or concrete plans for any additional meetings." That, we can believe!
So the talking is done. It failed. You know what comes next.
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