Both sides get tough on NATO, Ukraine

MOSCOW — Moscow and Washington both took uncompromising stands Tuesday ahead of more talks amid a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine, with the U.S. rebuffing a demand to halt NATO expansion and the Kremlin saying it will quickly see if it’s worthwhile to even keep negotiating.

At Monday’s talks in Geneva, Russia insisted on guarantees precluding NATO’S expansion to Ukraine and other ex-soviet nations and demanded to roll back the military alliance’s deployments in Eastern Europe. The U.S. firmly rejected the demands as a nonstarter.

The U.S. envoy to NATO set a tough tone for the next talks with Moscow, ruling out any concessions on the alliance’s eastward expansion. “We will not allow anyone to slam NATO’S open-door policy shut,” said U.S. Ambassador Julianne Smith.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the Geneva talks as “open, comprehensive and direct,” but emphasized that Moscow wants quick results. ”We see no significant reason for optimism,” he told reporters.

Peskov said Russia-nato talks

in Brussels on Wednesday and a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna on Thursday would show whether further negotiations are worthwhile.

“It will become clear in what direction and how to proceed and if it makes sense,” he said. “We absolutely wouldn’t accept dragging this process out endlessly.“

Smith said “not a single ally inside the NATO alliance is willing to budge or negotiate anything as it relates to NATO’S open-door pol

icy.”

“We stand firm in pushing back on security proposals that are simply nonstarters,“she told reporters. “There’s widespread unity and consensus across the alliance on the challenge that sits before us.”

The U.S. estimates Russia has massed about 100,000 troops near Ukraine, a buildup that has stoked fears of an invasion. Moscow says it has no plans to attack and rejects Washington’s demand to pull back its forces, saying it has

the right to deploy them wherever necessary.

President Vladimir Putin has warned Moscow would take unspecified “military-technical measures” if the U.S. and its allies don’t meet its demands. He spoke with members of his Security Council, saying he wanted to discuss unspecified issues related to security and infrastructure in border areas.

The U.S. warned that Russia will face unprecedented sanctions if it attacks Ukraine.

Brendan Hoffman / New York Times file photo Ukrainian soldiers work on a bunker in November. U.S. officials, their NATO allies and Kremlin leaders are meeting in a whirlwind of diplomacy aimed at averting military action.