Feb 1, 2022: The State Department said that in a call with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Russia to “immediately” reduce tensions and withdraw its troops from Ukraine’s borders.

Blinken stressed that “further attacks on Ukraine would have immediate and serious consequences, and urged Russia to take the diplomatic route,” the department said in a statement.

A State Department official said Blinken had told Lavrov that Washington and its allies were ready to sit down and discuss the proposals that had been drawn up in the letters from both sides to resolve the crisis.

Blinken told Lavrov that the talks “would go a long way toward reducing Russia’s troop build-up on Ukraine’s borders.”

However, the official said, “nothing we heard would give any indication that we would see a change in the coming days,” in terms of de-escalation.

“We continue to hear those assurances that Russia is not planning to invade, but certainly every action we see says otherwise, with the continued buildup of troops and heavy weapons moving to the border,” the official said, speaking on grounds of anonymity.

A White House official said that a letter sent by Lavrov to Blinken and counterparts in Europe late Monday was not Russia’s formal response to the positions the US and European allies laid out in letters to Moscow last week.

But the US side stressed the need for Russia to draw down some of the more than 100,000 troops it has amassed on Ukraine’s border, including inside Belarus.

Stay tuned to BaaghiTV for latest news and Updates!