US officials prepare for escalation as NATO-Russia talks end with no resolution on Ukraine tension

US officials prepare for escalation as NATO-Russia talks end with no resolution on Ukraine tension

US officials prepare for escalation as NATO-Russia talks end with no resolution on Ukraine tension

VIENNA/MOSCOW : Russia said on Thursday that talks with the West had so far failed to bridge fundamental differences over the Ukraine crisis and Moscow's demands that NATO pull back from central and eastern Europe.

Russia has forced the United States and its allies to the negotiating table by assembling around 1,00,000 troops near the border with Ukraine, while denying it plans to invade.

It says after decades of NATO expansion it was determined to draw "red lines" and stop the alliance from admitting Ukraine as a member or basing missiles there.

The US says Russian demands to veto Ukrainian membership and halt NATO military activity in eastern Europe are non-starters, but it is willing to talk to Moscow about arms control, missile deployments and confidence-building measures.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that talks so far this week with the United States and NATO had yielded some "positive nuances” but this was not enough. The negotiations were initiated (for us) to receive concrete answers to concrete, fundamental questions. — Reuters

Poland: Europe at great risk of war

Vienna: Europe is nearer war than it has been in 30 years, Poland’s Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau warned on Thursday while addressing envoys from the 57 members of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Reuters

Russia begins pullout from Kazakhstan

Almaty: A Russia-led military bloc began pulling its troops out of Kazakhstan on Thursday after a weeklong deployment during the worst bout of unrest in the Central Asian nation's post-Soviet history. reuters