Ukraine urged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Wednesday to prepare to impose economic sanctions on Russia and to strengthen military cooperation between the alliance and Kiev, after the latter's participation in a NATO meeting that began on Tuesday and ends today and discusses Russian military movements near Ukraine's borders, while the Russian army began His periodic winter maneuvers in the southern military region of his country, parts of which are located on the border with Ukraine.
"We will call on the allies to join Ukraine in putting economic sanctions on Russia if it decides to choose the worst case scenario," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in press statements upon his arrival to participate in talks with his counterparts in NATO countries in Riga, Latvia's capital. Moscow is preparing for the imminent invasion of Ukraine.
Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod told reporters upon his arrival to participate in the NATO ministerial meeting that any military operation that violates Ukraine's sovereignty will be met with "serious consequences," adding that Denmark is ready to participate in "severe" sanctions.
Yesterday, NATO and the United States issued strong warnings to Russia that it would pay a heavy price for any new military aggression against Ukraine, to which Moscow responded by warning the alliance against a military adventure in eastern Ukraine.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday - on the first day of the ministerial meeting - that the alliance deployed combat forces in eastern Europe for the first time due to Russian threats.
Stoltenberg added that NATO's presence in Eastern Europe, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea is defensive and not to provoke anyone.
Putin's proposal
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his country will have to act if the US-led NATO puts missiles in Ukraine that could hit the capital, Moscow, within minutes.
On Wednesday, Putin suggested to the West "to start serious negotiations on guarantees that NATO will not expand towards Russia's borders," stressing that the West continues to ignore Russia's concerns with regard to threatening its security.
Putin accused the West of continuing to ignore Russia's concerns regarding the threat to its security (Reuters)
The Kremlin (the Russian presidency) said that it was concerned about Ukraine amassing its forces in the Donbas region (eastern Ukraine), which increases the chances of Kiev's desire to resolve the conflict militarily, adding that it is not possible to talk about de-escalation while more than 120,000 Ukrainian soldiers are deployed in Donbas.
For its part, Ukraine said today that it wants to hold direct talks with Moscow in order to end the war against the Russian-backed separatist militants in the Donbas region near the border with Russia.
"We must admit that we will not be able to stop the war without direct negotiations with Russia," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech to his country's parliament.
Kiev has been at war since 2014 with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said at a press conference that the Ukrainian army's dispatch of additional reinforcements to Donbass is a violation of the Minsk agreements.
Today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused NATO of seeking to turn Ukraine into an enemy state.
Border maneuvers
In light of the escalation of tension and the exchange of accusations, Russia said today that it has started periodic winter military exercises in its southern military region, parts of which are located on the border with Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry indicated that 10,000 soldiers have moved to training sites throughout the vast region, parts of which are located on the border with Donbass, and maneuvers are taking place in the Ukrainian Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
The ministry stated that mechanized infantry units will participate in the maneuvers, which will be held in more than 30 training grounds at least in 6 regions.
On the other hand, a senior US State Department official said that Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken will hold a meeting with his Russian counterpart Lavrov on the sidelines of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit, which will be held in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, on Thursday.
The official said that before meeting with Lavrov, Blinken will hold a separate meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Kuliba on the sidelines of the same summit.
Blinken had expressed Washington's deep concern about Russia's military movements on Ukraine's borders, adding that any new aggression against Ukraine would have serious consequences, and stressed that his country was closely monitoring Russian moves.
Telephone conversations
The Russian Foreign Minister said today, Wednesday, that there will be phone talks between President Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the issue of the crisis between Moscow and Kiev, and that the talks will discuss Ankara's offer to mediate to address the tension between Russia and Ukraine.
In 2014, the relationship of Russia and NATO deteriorated after Moscow annexed the Crimea, which was part of Ukraine, and the alliance accuses Russia of being behind the outbreak of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in the same year between Kiev and pro-Moscow separatists.
On the other hand, Russia accuses NATO of trying to encircle it militarily after the deployment of the US missile shield in eastern Europe in Poland and Romania, as well as the US deployment of medium and short-range missiles in Japan, and the expansion of the alliance's infrastructure in the Baltic states and Bulgaria.