NATO

Blinken told a press conference that the letter, which was delivered to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the US ambassador to Russia, "sets out a serious diplomatic path forward should Russia choose it", Xinhua news agency reported. The letter, Blinken said, was in response to Russia recently outlining "its concerns and proposals in writing" to the US.

NATO members are increasing military activities in Eastern Europe amid tensions regarding Ukraine, despite Russia's warning that strengthened presence of the alliance near its borders are a "national security threat". In the past days, Denmark, Spain, France, and the Netherlands have been sending or planning to send ships, planes or troops to NATO's deployments in Eastern Europe, reports Xinhua news agency.

Peskov made the remarks on Monday during his daily briefing shortly after NATO said its allies are "putting forces on standby and sending additional ships and fighter jets to NATO deployments in Eastern Europe" to deter Russia, Xinhua news agency reported. In addition to the NATO maneuvers, Ukrainian authorities are concentrating a huge amount of forces on the line of contact with the two self-proclaimed republics in Donbass, he noted.

John Kirby, the Defense Department's spokesperson, said on Monday during a press briefing that putting US forces on heightened alert is to ensure that the US will get ready to respond to a possible decision by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to deploy its 40,000-strong multinational response force known as NRF, which could be shored up on short notice.

The White House press secretary further warned that Russia will face severe repercussions for its misadventure in Ukraine. This comes on the back of Russia moving its troops in Belarus for the purpose of joint military exercises with the Belarusian troops. The U.S., however, believes that the crisis can be resolved through diplomacy and has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to take steps to de-escalate the tensions. Anthony Blinken, U.S. secretary of state, is set to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday in Geneva .

"We find it necessary to keep those troops due to a very tense situation and very unfriendly environment," Xinhua news agency quoted Peskov as saying. Russia has to take measures of precaution in response to NATO military build-up, drills and frequent flights of fighter jets and reconnaissance planes near the Russian borders, he said.

"Negotiations were initiated in order to get specific answers to specific fundamental questions raised. It is on these fundamental issues that disagreements have been recorded," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Thursday. "This is bad. This can only be counted in the negative points of the two rounds that took place," he added.

"This was not an easy discussion," he told journalists after the four-hour meeting on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported. "But that is exactly why this meeting was so important. We had a very serious and direct exchange on the situation in and around Ukraine. And the implications for European security. There are significant differences between NATO allies and Russia on these issues. Our differences will not be easy to bridge."

Stoltenberg, at the beginning of what he described as an "important week for European security", highlighted the diplomatic efforts underway in search of a solution to prevent an armed conflict, during a joint press conference with Olga Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine, reports Ninhua news agency.

Addressing a press conference following the extraordinary meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Stoltenberg on Friday said that the meeting addressed Russia's military build-up around Ukraine and the implications for European security, Xinhua news agency reported. He said Russia's actions "seriously undermine the security order" in Europe. "NATO remains committed to our dual-track approach to Russia: strong deterrence and defense, combined with meaningful dialogue."