OTTAWA, January 17. /TASS/. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview aired on Sunday that the alliance and Russia should hold talks to prevent the use of force against Ukraine as tensions are still high.
"It’s too early to tell," he said when asked if tensions started to recede. "We put proposals on the table for Russians to engage in a series of meetings on important topics for European security, for the situation around Ukraine."
Russia didn’t answer during the meeting, Stoltenberg said.
"We believe it is important to sit down, especially as tensions are high as they are now, and find a way forward, which is political, to prevent the use of military force against Ukraine by Russia once again,"
There has been a flurry of statements in the West and Kiev lately that Russia could invade Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they were unsubstantiated escalation and that Russia doesn’t threaten anyone. At the same time, he didn’t rule out provocations to corroborate these Western statements and warned that the use of force to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine will have serious consequences.
Russian-US consultations on the issues related to security guarantees took place in Geneva on January 10, followed by a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels on January 12 and a session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Permanent Council in Vienna on January 13.
On December 17, 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a draft agreement on security guarantees between Russia and the United States and a draft agreement on ensuring the security of Russia and NATO member states.
The proposed measures include guarantees that NATO will not advance eastward, including by accepting Ukraine as a member. They also impose restrictions on deployment of serious offensive weapons, including nuclear ones.