Thomas Escritt and Dmitry Antonov

VIENNA/MOSCOW – Russia claimed on Thursday that negotiations with the West have so far failed in bridging fundamental differences about the Ukraine crisis, and Moscow’s demand that NATO withdraw from central and Eastern Europe.

While talks were moving to Vienna this week, the Kremlin provided a blunt assessment of diplomacy. There, Poland’s foreign ministry stated that Europe is now closer to war than at any other time in 30 years. Meanwhile the U.S. Envoy said the West must not be forced to accept blackmail.

Russia has made it difficult for the United States and its allies, by placing around 100,000 troops close to Ukraine’s borders. However, Russia denies any plans to invade.

The alliance is expected to stop Ukraine becoming a member and launching missiles from there, despite decades of NATO expansion.

According to the United States, Russian demands that Ukraine be vetoed and NATO cease military activity in eastern Europe is non-starters. However, it’s willing to discuss arms control, missile deployments, confidence-building and more with Moscow.

Dmitry Peskov (Kremlin spokesperson) told reporters that discussions this week with NATO and the United States yielded “positive nuances”, but it was not enough.

“The negotiations (for us) were initiated to obtain concrete answers to concrete fundamental questions. “These fundamental questions are the reason for our disagreement,” he stated.

The sanctions bill, which was unveiled Wednesday by the U.S. Senate Democrats, would be targeted at top Russian military and government officials including President Vladimir Putin.

Peskov stated that sanctioning Putin was tantamount to cutting relations.

He stated that “we view the appearance such documents or statements extremely negatively in the context of an ongoing series, even unsuccessful, of negotiations.”

RISK OF WAR

On Thursday, talks moved to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is composed of 57 nations. Zbigniew Rau, Polish Foreign Minister was calling for peaceful resolution regarding Ukraine.

Rau spoke without naming Russia, saying that it seemed like the OSCE region is at greater risk than in previous 30 years.

The U.S. Ambassador Michael Carpenter stated to the OSCE Meeting: “As the OSCE prepares for an open dialog on how to strengthen security to the benefit of everyone, we must reject blackmail. We also need to refuse to allow threats and aggression to be rewarded.

Russia stated that it would decide its next steps after the talks. Unspecified “military-technical” measures have been threatened if Russia rejects their demands.

On Wednesday, Wendy Sherman, the U.S. deputy secretary of state said that Russia would be able to show its seriousness about diplomacy if it sacked it.

According to senior Biden administration officials, the United States has settled most of its options concerning sanctions against Russia in the event that it invades Ukraine.