WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The Russian government has sent a written response to a U.S. proposal aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, an official confirmed to NewsNation.
The response comes as the Biden administration continues to press the Kremlin to de-escalate the growing crisis on the Ukraine border, where some 100,000 Russian troops have massed.
A State Department spokesperson also confirmed the follow-up was received, but declined to offer details.
“It would be unproductive to negotiate in public, so we’ll leave it up to Russia if they want to discuss their response,” the State Department spokesperson told NewsNation.
The Russian response comes less than a week after U.S. and NATO officials sent in writing proposals addressing grievances the Kremlin said must be addressed by the West.
The U.S. and NATO, however, held firm to the alliance’s open-door policy for membership, rejected a demand to permanently ban Ukraine from joining, and said allied deployments of troops and military equipment in Eastern Europe are nonnegotiable.
President Joe Biden on Monday said the U.S. continues “to engage in nonstop diplomacy” to de-escalate the situation.
“We continue to urge diplomacy as the best way forward, but with Russia continuing its buildup of forces around Ukraine, we are ready no matter what happens,” Biden said.
Biden met with the ruling emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, at the White House on Monday to discuss issues including global energy supplies as the U.S. and Europe scramble to put in place backup plans to get gas to Europe if supplies are hit by a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russia supplies about 40% of the natural gas used in Europe.
Also Monday, talks to stave off the threat of war in Eastern Europe moved to the United Nations Security Council.
Russia, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, dismissed the meeting as a “PR stunt.” The country also accused the West of “whipping up tensions” over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought “pure Nazis” to power in Kyiv.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield shot back that Russia’s growing military force of more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders was “the largest mobilization” in Europe in decades, adding that there has been a spike in cyberattacks and Russian disinformation.
“And they are attempting, without any factual basis, to paint Ukraine and Western countries as the aggressors to fabricate a pretext for attack,” she said.
The harsh exchanges in the Security Council came as Moscow lost an attempt to block the meeting and reflected the gulf between the two nuclear powers. It was the first open session where all protagonists in the Ukraine crisis spoke publicly, even though the U.N.’s most powerful body took no action.
More high-level diplomacy is expected this week.
U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the meeting was “a critical step in rallying the world to speak out in one voice” to reject the use of force, seek military de-escalation, support diplomacy and demand accountability from every member “to refrain from military aggression against its neighbors.”