RIGA (Reuters). –Ukraine urged NATO to set economic sanctions against Russia, and increase military cooperation with Kyiv. Ukraine joined Western Alliance for discussions about ways to stop Russia from launching a new attack following the massing of troops nearby.

Ukraine is a former Soviet country that now seeks to be a member of NATO and the European Union. Relations between Russia and West have deteriorated to the lowest point in three decades.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, told journalists that he would call upon NATO allies to help Ukraine put together a deterrence plan.

NATO must prepare sanctions economic against Russia as part of the package, if Russia “decides that worst-case scenario”, said he, while boosting military and defense cooperation with Ukraine.

NATO and the United States warned Moscow on Tuesday they will pay a heavy price for any further military aggression against Ukraine.

Following the start of the talks in Riga, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that Russia’s future aggression against Ukraine “would come at a heavy price” and had serious economic and political consequences for Russia.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin responded that Russia would have to do something if NATO-led U.S. placed missiles into Ukraine. These could be used within minutes to strike Moscow.

On Wednesday night, U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken was expected to discuss more details about the intelligence Washington has regarding Russia’s intentions towards Ukraine in a news conference.

In 2014 the Kremlin annexed Crimea to Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula. It then supported rebels against the government in the eastern part of Ukraine. The conflict, which Kyiv says has already killed over 14,000 people and is still simmering, according to Kyiv.