‘Ball is in their court’: US responds to Russia’s Ukraine demands

The United States has delivered its written response to Russia’s demands that Ukraine be prevented from ever joining NATO, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday. 

The response, which was requested by Russia last week, reiterated the US commitment to upholding NATO’s “open door” principle, Blinken told reporters. The message was delivered to Moscow’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs by US Ambassador John Sullivan. 

The secretary declined to go into specifics of the response but said it was “fully coordinated with Ukraine and our European allies and partners with whom we’ve been consulting continuously for weeks.” 

“We’re not releasing the document publicly, because we think that diplomacy has the best chance to succeed if we provide space for confidential talks,” Blinken said. “We hope and expect that Russia will have the same view.” 

The secretary added that he expects to speak with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in the coming days after he and his colleagues get a chance to read the US response.