Blinken and Lavrov convene in Geneva over Ukraine crisis for second round of talks
Round two of US-Russia talks over Ukraine and security start on Friday.
Anthony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov, respectively Washington and Moscow's top diplomats, will meet in Geneva, Switzerland.
These new talks, which seek to de-escalate the crisis at the Ukrainian border, come 11 days after the first round of discussions in the Swiss city yielded little result.
Russia has amassed some 100,000 troops on the border and is being accused by the US of planning an invasion, which it denies.
Instead, it accuses the West of plotting “provocations” in Ukraine, citing the delivery of weapons to the country by British military transports in recent days.
Russia wants binding security guarantees, including a permanent prohibition on Ukrainian membership in NATO, to which Kyiv aspires, and the removal of most of the US and allied military presence in eastern Europe.
Washington, Brussels and NATO have rejected these demands and warned that any attack on Ukraine would have costly consequences.
The top US diplomat warned on Thursday during a visit to Berlin for talks with his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, that "we are facing complex problems and solving them will take time. I don't expect us to solve them in Geneva."
He called for "mutual understanding".
The Kremlin has meanwhile denounced as "destabilising" remarks by US President Joe Biden on Wednesday that promised a severe response from the US and its allies in case of a Russian military incursion into Ukraine. Moscow argued Biden's comments could give ideas to "hotheads among Ukrainian officials".
Antony Blinken is arriving in Geneva after a whirlwind tour that took him from Kyiv to Berlin, the city that symbolised the reunification of Europe after the Cold War, for talks with German,
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