Russia's military buildup along the Ukrainian border has increased over the past 24
hours, the Pentagon said Thursday, while the US awaits Russian President Vladimir
Putin's response to its written proposals submitted to Moscow on Wednesday.
"We continue to see, including in the last 24 hours, more accumulation of credible
combat forces arrayed by the Russians in, again, the western part of their country
and in Belarus," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a press briefing.
Kirby described the buildup as "not dramatic" but "also not sclerotic."
The US is still holding out hope that diplomatic efforts with Russia can lead to a
de-escalation. On Wednesday, the US and NATO submitted separate written responses
to Russia's publicly aired concerns, an overture that Moscow had requested. While
the US did not disclose what was contained in the document, Secretary of State
Antony Blinken told reporters Wednesday it did not give any ground NATO's "open-
door policy," leaving the US at odds with Russia's central demand that NATO commit
to never admitting Ukraine.
Putin has read the responses from the US and NATO, a Kremlin spokesman said
Thursday, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said they failed to address
Russia's primary concerns.
"There is no positive reaction on the main issue in this document," Lavrov told
reporters in Moscow. "The main issue is our clear position on the inadmissibility
of further expansion of NATO to the East and the deployment of strike weapons that
could threaten the territory of the Russian Federation."
Blinken said Thursday he had "heard a variety of initial responses from different
people in Russia to the paper that we shared with them, as well as to the paper
that NATO shared with them."
"But the response that counts is President Putin's response, and to the best of our
understanding, according the Russians, these papers are on his desk," he said in an
interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
"And we'll look forward to his response, which I'm sure will be conveyed through
Foreign Minister Lavrov and others in the days ahead. That's what matters most," he
said.
On Thursday evening, US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield
called for a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis to take place on Monday.
US officials have continued to emphasize they were prepared to act regardless of
whether Russia pursues diplomacy or further aggression toward Ukraine, and on
Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that "nothing is
off the table" when it comes to sanctions should Moscow invade -- including killing
the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany and removing Russia from
SWIFT international payment system.
"The commission is responsible for designing, shaping and developing the
sanctions," von der Leyen told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "We are very clear that
if there is any further aggression or military aggression of Russia against
Ukraine, there will be massive consequences, and severe costs for Russia."
