Tag Archives: Ukraine

U.S., Russia set for Jan 10 security talks amid Ukraine tensions

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrew Osborn

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) -U.S. and Russian officials will hold security talks on Jan. 10 to discuss concerns about their respective military activity and confront rising tensions over Ukraine, the two countries said.

A spokesperson for U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration announced the date late on Monday, and said Russia and NATO were also likely to hold talks on Jan. 12, with a broader meeting including Moscow, Washington and other European countries set for Jan. 13.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov confirmed those dates on Tuesday and said he hoped the talks with the United States in Geneva would start a process that would give Moscow new security guarantees from the West.

Such guarantees are a longstanding demand of Moscow, which alarmed the West by massing tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine in the past two months following its seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 and its backing of separatists fighting Kyiv troops in eastern Ukraine.

The European Union demanded a say in any security deal.

“Any discussion about European security must happen in coordination with and participation of EU,” said EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell after talking to British foreign minister Liz Truss.

The Jan. 12 NATO meeting would be held in EU hub Brussels, Ryabkov said, while the Jan. 13 talks would involve the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which includes the United States and its NATO allies, as well as Russia, Ukraine and other ex-Soviet states.

CONCERNS ON THE TABLE

Russia has denied plans for an assault on Ukraine but says it could take unspecified military action if its security demands are not met.

Moscow, worried by what it says is the West’s re-arming of Ukraine, has said it wants legally-binding guarantees NATO will not expand further eastwards, and that certain offensive weapons will not be deployed to Ukraine or other neighboring countries.

The U.S. administration has threatened to impose economic sanctions if Russia attacks Ukraine. It says it cannot promise a sovereign state such as Ukraine would never join NATO.

“When we sit down to talk, Russia can put its concerns on the table, and we will put our concerns on the table with Russia’s activities as well,” said the spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council, who declined to be identified. The spokesperson said no decisions would be made about Ukraine without Ukraine.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters the United States would keep the Harry Truman carrier in Europe for now rather than sending it to the Middle East.

The official said there were no plans to move it closer to Ukraine and despite the Russian troop buildup, there was still no U.S. warship in the Black Sea.

Biden on Monday signed into law a spending bill that, among other things, will provide $300 million for an initiative supporting Ukraine’s armed forces and billions more for European defense broadly.

Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for the separatist uprising in the east of Ukraine resulted in Kyiv losing control of a swath of territory in a conflict it says killed 15,000 people.

Major combat ended with a ceasefire in 2015, but deadly clashes still take place regularly.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Andrew Osborn; Additional reporting by Maria Kiselyova, Olzhas Auyezov, Idrees Ali and Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Michael Perry, Peter Graff and Angus MacSwan)

U.S. helps Ukraine to strengthen its border with Russia, Belarus

KYIV (Reuters) – The United States will finance projects including surveillance and monitoring equipment to strengthen Ukraine’s borders with Russia and Belarus, amid continuing escalation with Moscow, Ukraine’s border service said on Tuesday.

Kyiv accuses Moscow of massing tens of thousands of troops near its borders in preparation for a possible offensive.

Russia denies planning any attack but accuses Ukraine and the United States of destabilizing behavior, and has sought security guarantees against NATO’s eastward expansion.

The border service said in a statement the projects worth $20 million involved the purchase of video recording systems and drones, as well as personal protective equipment for border guards.

Ukraine, which seeks to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has since 2018 also received a series of consignments of U.S. ammunition and Javelin missiles, prompting criticism from Moscow.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Alex Richardson)

U.S. President Biden signs $770 billion defense bill

By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, for fiscal year 2022, which authorizes $770 billion in defense spending, the White House said on Monday.

Earlier this month, the Senate and the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly for the defense bill with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans for the annual legislation setting policy for the Department of Defense.

The NDAA is closely watched by a broad swath of industry and other interests because it is one of the only major pieces of legislation that becomes law every year and because it addresses a wide range of issues. The NDAA has become law every year for six decades.

Authorizing about 5% more military spending than last year, the fiscal 2022 NDAA is a compromise after intense negotiations between House and Senate Democrats and Republicans after being stalled by disputes over China and Russia policy.

It includes a 2.7% pay increase for the troops, and more aircraft and Navy ship purchases, in addition to strategies for dealing with geopolitical threats, especially Russia and China.

The NDAA includes $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides support to Ukraine’s armed forces, $4 billion for the European Defense Initiative and $150 million for Baltic security cooperation.

On China, the bill includes $7.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and a statement of congressional support for the defense of Taiwan, as well as a ban on the Department of Defense procuring products produced with forced labor from China’s Xinjiang region.

It creates a 16-member commission to study the war in Afghanistan. Biden ended the conflict – by far the country’s longest war – in August.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter and Matthew Lewis)

‘Keep the defender guessing’: Russia’s military options on Ukraine

By Tom Balmforth

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops to the north, east and south of Ukraine is fueling fears in Kyiv and Western capitals that Moscow is planning a new attack. Russia denies any such plans.

Western military analysts have suggested that Russia cannot keep such troops deployed where they are indefinitely due to financial and logistical issues and would need to pull them back by the summer of next year.

Estimates of the numbers of new Russian troops moved closer to Ukraine vary from 60,000-90,000, with a U.S. intelligence document suggesting that number could be ramped up to 175,000.

U.S. officials have warned Russia might launch a new attack against Ukraine as early as the second half of next month when the ground will be harder, making it easier for tanks and other armor to move swiftly.

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russian and U.S. officials would in January begin discussing Moscow’s proposals for security guarantees it wants from the West in order to defuse the current crisis and that he hoped for a positive outcome.

But what might a Russian attack actually look like and what could it seek to achieve?

“The current deployments are versatile. They keep Russia’s options open and therefore keep the defender guessing,” said Keir Giles, an Associate Fellow at Chatham House.

Here are some possible scenarios.

DONBASS ESCALATION

Heavily armed Russian-backed separatists have controlled a swath of eastern Ukraine since 2014 and continue to exchange fire with Ukrainian government forces on a regular basis despite a 2015 ceasefire that ended major hostilities.

The conflict in Donbass has killed 15,000 people, Kyiv says. Ukraine has long accused Russia of having regular troops in the region, something Moscow denies.

Russia in turn has accused Kyiv of harboring plans to retake the region by force, something Ukraine denies.

In such a febrile atmosphere the risk of a misunderstanding or unplanned escalation is greater, and Russia could use such an incident as a casus belli.

One source familiar with the Russian Defense Ministry’s thinking said this was the most likely scenario if Moscow decided to attack, but said he was unaware of any such decision. Kyiv could also be provoked into attacking by the separatists who could then ask Russia to officially send in troops to help, the same source said.

Russian forces could expand the fighting in Donbass to draw Ukraine into a bloody, conventional conflict, said Neil Melvin, director of International Security Studies at RUSI. Moscow could try to seize new Ukrainian coastal areas on the Sea of Azov, creating a land bridge from the Russian city of Rostov through Donbass to Crimea, he said. “That would put the Ukrainian government under a lot of pressure,” he said.

ASSAULT FROM CRIMEA

Russia has brought in new forces to Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and said this week paratroopers would be holding new drills there.

Moscow could launch a new attack on Ukraine from Crimea and seize territory up to the Dnieper River that could serve as a natural barrier against a potential Ukrainian counter-offensive, said Konrad Muzyka, director of the Poland-based Rochan consultancy.

The operation could begin with massive artillery, missile and air strikes on Ukrainian units in the south. Spetsnaz units might seize bridges and railway junctions, allowing troops and tanks to advance, he said. There are only two roads from Crimea that could be blocked or destroyed, a potential weakness, he said.

Forces would secure control of a Soviet-era canal that provided Crimea with fresh water supplies until Russia annexed the territory and Ukraine stopped the flow.

MULTI-FRONT ATTACK

A U.S. intelligence document made public this month said Russia could stage an invasion as soon as January with up to 100 battalion tactical groups (BTGs) or some 175,000 troops. It said about 50 BTGs were already in place to the north and east of Ukraine and in Crimea to the south, creating the possibility of an attack from three sides.

Seizing southern Ukraine could make military sense for Moscow by cutting Kyiv off from the coast and NATO’s presence in the Black Sea, Melvin said. Politically, it could play well with Russian nationalists who see the area as the historic “Novorossiya” lands or “New Russia”.

A multi-front assault might also involve a move into northeastern Ukraine, with Moscow encircling but perhaps not entering major cities where it could get bogged down in urban fighting. Equally, Russian troops could move into Belarus, opening up a northern front for Ukraine that would put Russian forces closer to Kyiv, Giles said.

“This of course would be the most costly economically, politically and in terms of human lives and that’s probably why it’s least likely,” Melvin said of an all-out invasion.

Analysts said even if it overwhelmed Ukraine’s army, which is half the size of its own, Russia could face guerrilla-type resistance that would make it hard to hold on to captured territory.

MISSILE STRIKES OR CYBER-ATTACK

Giles said some scenarios could involve long-range missile attacks or cyber-attacks targeting critical infrastructure. Missile attacks would take advantage of Ukraine’s weaker anti-missile defenses.

“The different scenarios for how exactly Russia might seek to persuade the West to meet its (security) demands by punishing Kyiv don’t even necessarily include a land incursion,” he said.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; editing by Nick Macfie)

Putin says Russia has ‘nowhere to retreat’ over Ukraine

By Mark Trevelyan

(Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had no room to retreat in a standoff with the United States over Ukraine and would be forced into a tough response unless the West dropped its “aggressive line.”

Putin addressed the remarks to military officials as Russia pressed for an urgent U.S. and NATO response to proposals it made last week for a binding set of security guarantees from the West.

“What the U.S. is doing in Ukraine is at our doorstep… And they should understand that we have nowhere further to retreat to. Do they think we’ll just watch idly?” Putin said.

“If the aggressive line of our Western colleagues continues, we will take adequate military-technical response measures and react harshly to unfriendly steps.”

Putin did not spell out the nature of these measures but his phrasing mirrored that used previously by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who has warned that Russia may redeploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe in response to what it sees as NATO plans to do the same.

Russia rejects Ukrainian and U.S. charges that it may be preparing an invasion of Ukraine as early as next month by tens of thousands of Russian troops poised within reach of the border.

It says it needs pledges from the West – including a promise not to conduct NATO military activity in Eastern Europe – because its security is threatened by Ukraine’s growing ties with the Western alliance and the possibility of NATO missiles being deployed against it on Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelenskiy said on Friday that he was ready to meet Russia for “direct talks, tête-à-tête, we don’t mind in what format”. But Moscow has said repeatedly it sees no point in such a meeting without clarity on what the agenda would be.

A Kremlin statement said Putin stressed in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron that reconvening the four-power Normandy group – which brings together the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany – would require concrete steps by Kyiv to implement existing peace agreements. Ukraine says it is Russia and its proxies who are refusing to engage.

With Western powers keen to show Russia they are solid in their support of Ukraine and NATO, Germany’s new Chancellor Olaf Scholz also spoke by phone with Putin.

U.S. SUPPLIES

Karen Donfried, the U.S. State Department’s top diplomat for Europe, in a briefing with reporters, said Washington was prepared to engage with Moscow via three channels – bilaterally, through the NATO-Russia Council that last met in 2019, and at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In the meantime, she said, the United States would continue to send military equipment and supplies to Ukraine in the weeks and months ahead – something that has antagonized Moscow.

“As President (Joe) Biden has told President Putin, should Russia further invade Ukraine, we will provide additional defensive materials to the Ukrainians above and beyond that which we are already in the process of providing,” she said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance would seek meaningful discussions with Moscow early next year.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu alleged that more than 120 U.S. private military contractors were active in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops have been fighting Russian-backed separatists since 2014, and said they were preparing a “provocation” involving chemical substances.

He offered no evidence in support of the claim, which Pentagon spokesman John Kirby described as “completely false”.

Throughout the crisis, Russia has veered between harsh rhetoric, calls for dialogue and dire warnings, with Ryabkov repeatedly comparing the situation to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war.

Many of its demands, including for a block on NATO membership for Ukraine and the withdrawal of U.S. and other allied troops from Eastern Europe, are seen as non-starters by Washington and its partners.

But rejecting them out of hand would risk closing off any space for dialogue and further fueling the crisis.

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov, Andrew Osborn, Olzhas Auyezov, Polina Devitt, Natalia Zinets in Kyiv, Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis and Idrees Ali in Washington, Sabine Siebold and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Russia demands NATO roll back from East Europe and stay out of Ukraine

By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Tom Balmforth

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Friday it wanted a legally binding guarantee that NATO would give up any military activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine, part of a wish list of security guarantees it wants to negotiate with the West.

Moscow for the first time laid out in detail demands that it says are essential for lowering tensions in Europe and defusing a crisis over Ukraine, which Western countries have accused Russia of sizing up for a potential invasion after building up troops near the border. Russia has denied planning an invasion.

The demands contain elements – such as an effective Russian veto on NATO membership for Ukraine – that the West has already ruled out.

Others would imply the removal of U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe and the withdrawal of multinational NATO battalions from Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that were once in the Soviet Union.

In Washington, a senior administration official said the United States was prepared to discuss the proposals but added: “That said, there are some things in those documents that the Russians know are unacceptable.”

The official said Washington would respond some time next week with more concrete proposals on the format of any talks.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Washington would talk to its allies. “We will not compromise the key principles on which European security is built, including that all countries have the right to decide their own future and foreign policy, free from outside interference,” she said.

NATO diplomats told Reuters that Russia cannot have a veto on further alliance expansion and NATO has the right to decide its own military posture.

“Russia is not a member of NATO and doesn’t decide on matters related to NATO,” Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lukasz Jasina said.

‘SMOKESCREEN’

Some Western political analysts suggested Russia was knowingly presenting unrealistic demands which it knew would not be met to provide a diplomatic distraction while maintaining military pressure on Ukraine.

“Something is very wrong with this picture, the pol(itical) side appears to be a smokescreen,” Michael Kofman, a Russia specialist at Virginia-based research organization CNA, wrote on Twitter.

Sam Greene, professor of Russian politics at King’s College London, said President Vladimir Putin was “drawing a line around the post-Soviet space and planting a ‘keep out’ sign”.

“It’s not meant to be a treaty: it’s a declaration,” he said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean this is a prelude to war. It’s a justification for keeping Moscow’s hair-trigger stance, in order to keep Washington and others off balance.”

Presenting Moscow’s demands, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia and the West must start from a clean sheet in rebuilding relations.

“The line pursued by the United States and NATO over recent years to aggressively escalate the security situation is absolutely unacceptable and extremely dangerous,” he told reporters.

Ryabkov said Russia was not willing to put up with the current situation any longer, and urged Washington to come up with a constructive response fast.

He said Russia was ready to start talks as soon as Saturday, with Geneva a possible venue, but Russian news agency TASS quoted him as saying later that Moscow was extremely disappointed by the signals coming from Washington and NATO.

TROOP BUILD-UP

Moscow handed over its proposals to the United States this week as tensions rose over the Russian troop build-up near Ukraine.

It says it is responding to what it sees as threats to its own security from Ukraine’s increasingly close relations with NATO and aspirations to become an alliance member, even though there is no imminent prospect of Kyiv being allowed to join.

The Russian proposals were set out in two documents – a draft agreement with NATO countries and a draft treaty with the United States, both published by the foreign ministry.

The first, among other points, would require Russia and NATO not to deploy additional troops and weapons outside the countries where they were in May 1997 – before the accession to NATO of any of the former communist states in East Europe that for decades were dominated by Moscow. It would mean NATO abandoning any military activities in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The treaty with the United States would prevent Moscow and Washington from deploying nuclear weapons outside their national territories. That would mean an end to NATO’s so-called nuclear-sharing arrangements, where European NATO members provide aircraft capable of delivering U.S. nuclear weapons.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Osborn, Vladimir Soldatkin and Maxim Rodionov in Moscow, Robin Emmott in Brussels, Joanna Plucinska in Warsaw, Steve Holland in Washington and Trevor Hunnicutt aboard Air Force One; Writing by Mark Trevelyan, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Canada and others say patience running out with Iran over downed plane

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and Britain on Thursday said they could consider new steps in line with international law against Iran if it failed to respond by Jan. 5 to demands for reparations after the downing of a passenger airliner last year.

Most of the 176 people killed when Iran shot down a Ukrainian jet in January 2020 were citizens from those four countries, which created a coordination group that seeks to hold Tehran to account.

“The Coordination Group’s patience is wearing thin,” it said in a statement, adding that the group had pressed Tehran to open talks on reparations and to deliver justice but said Iran had shown it was reluctant to respond in a timely manner.

It said Iran should respond by Jan 5 or the group would “have to seriously consider other actions to resolve this matter within the framework of international law” but gave no details.

Tehran says Revolutionary Guards accidentally shot down the Boeing 737 jet and blamed a misaligned radar and an error by the air defense operator at a time when tensions were high between Tehran and the United States.

Last month, families of victims alleged in a report that high-ranking Iranian officials were responsible. In June, Canada said it had found no evidence that the downing of the plane had been premeditated.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Edmund Blair)

Ukraine allows foreign forces to join planned 2022 military drills

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s parliament approved on Tuesday a draft law that allows foreign troops to take part in military exercises on the territory of the former Soviet republic in 2022, a move likely to infuriate Russia.

According to the draft law, submitted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine plans to hold 10 large military exercises next year.

Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO, has stepped up military cooperation with Western countries amid an increase in hostile activity by Russia and its proxies that has raised the risk of open war between the two neighbors.

Kyiv accuses Moscow of deploying some 90,000 troops along their long shared border. Moscow says its moves are purely defensive and that it has the right to move forces around its own territory as it sees fit.

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Anatoliy Petrenko told parliament before the vote that 21,000 Ukrainians and 11,500 military personnel from the United States, Britain, Poland, Romania and other countries would participate in exercises on land, at sea and in the air.

“Conducting multinational exercises on the territory will help to strengthen national defense capabilities and support political and diplomatic efforts to maintain stability in the region,” said Petrenko.

There was no immediate response on Tuesday from Russia to the Ukrainian parliament’s approval of the draft law.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Factbox: Five potential flashpoints between Russia and Ukraine

MOSCOW/KYIV (Reuters) – A Russian troop build-up near Ukraine has led to fears that a war could break out between the former Soviet neighbors. Here are some potential flashpoints.

SEA OF AZOV

Confrontation has periodically flared up in the Sea of Azov, flanked by the Ukrainian and Russian coastlines, since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. The sea flows into the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait that Russia now de facto controls. The waters contain two large Ukrainian ports – Mariupol and Berdyansk, where Kyiv is building a naval base. Kyiv says Moscow seeks de facto control of the entire sea and impedes shipping.

Last week Russia accused Ukraine of a dangerous provocation after a Ukrainian naval boat sailed towards the Kerch Strait and did not react to a Russian request to change course. Ukraine said the vessel was an unarmed search and rescue ship and called the complaints disinformation. In 2018, Russia seized two small Ukrainian gunboats and one tugboat and their combined crew of 24 off Crimea. It accused them of illegally entering Russian waters as they headed from the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait.

CRIMEA

Russia has heavily reinforced Crimea with troops and military hardware since the annexation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will do all he can to return the peninsula. The Kremlin says it views his comments as a direct threat. Most of the world recognizes Crimea and its surrounding waters as Ukrainian. This summer a British warship exercised what London said were internationally recognized freedom of navigation rules in Ukrainian territorial waters near Crimea. Moscow said the ship crossed into Russian waters and that it fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of the vessel.

NORTH CRIMEAN CANAL

The Soviet-era canal that runs for more than 400 km (250 miles) was built in 1961-71 to channel water from the Dnieper river in Ukraine to arid areas of Ukraine’s Kherson region and Crimea. Ukrainian military analysts have said it could be used as a pretext for a Russian military offensive in southern Ukraine.

Following the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine cut off fresh water supply along the canal that had supplied 85% of the peninsula’s needs. Moscow appealed this year to the European Court of Human Rights in part over what it said was Ukraine’s blocking of water supplies. The complaint was dismissed. In July this year, Ukraine’s parliament adopted legislation banning water supplies to “occupied” territories. Kyiv says it cannot supply water because most of it would be used by the Russian army.

Ukraine’s defense minister has said Kyiv would be prepared to supply water to the population in the form of humanitarian aid delivered by the Red Cross if needed, but not via the canal.

DONBASS

Ukraine says some 14,000 people have been killed in fighting between government forces and Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine since 2014. As the West has raised fears over a Russian troop buildup, Moscow has accused Ukraine of building up its own troops and compared the tensions to the run-up to a 2008 war in which Russian forces crushed those of neighboring Georgia.

BELARUS-UKRAINE BORDER

Ties between Ukraine and Belarus have worsened since last year, when Moscow helped Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko weather mass street protests and Lukashenko in turn became more vocal in his support for Moscow against Ukraine. He has since said Crimea is legally Russian territory, a U-turn on his previous stance.

Last month, Ukraine said it should set aside money to build a more than 2,500 km fence on its borders with Belarus. Minsk has since accused a Ukrainian Mi-8 military helicopter of flouting its border during maneuvers and flying 1 km (0.6 miles) into its territory. Belarus has announced plans to hold joint military exercises with Russia on the Ukrainian border.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Natalia Zinets; editing by Mark Trevelyan and Angus MacSwan)

Russia demands rescinding of NATO promise to Ukraine and Georgia

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia demanded on Friday that NATO rescind a 2008 commitment to Ukraine and Georgia that they would one day become members and said the alliance should promise not to deploy weapons in countries bordering Russia that could threaten its security.

The demands were spelt out by the Russian foreign ministry in its fullest statement yet on the security guarantees that President Vladimir Putin says he wants to obtain from the United States and its allies.

“In the fundamental interests of European security, it is necessary to formally disavow the decision of the 2008 NATO Bucharest summit that ‘Ukraine and Georgia will become NATO members’,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine is at the center of a crisis in East-West relations as it accuses Russia of massing tens of thousands of troops in preparation for a possible large-scale military offensive.

Russia denies planning any attack but accuses Ukraine and the United States of destabilizing behavior, and has said it needs security guarantees for its own protection.

The ministry statement followed a video call between Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden this week that was dominated by discussion of Ukraine.

The foreign ministry said Moscow was proposing a series of steps to reduce tensions, including to agree safe distances between Russian and NATO warships and planes, especially in the Baltic and Black Seas.

Moscow called for the renewing of a regular defense dialogue with the United States and NATO and urged Washington to join a moratorium on deploying intermediate-range nuclear forces in Europe.

(Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Frances Kerry)