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Russia finalising response to US security proposals - Lavrov

14 February 2022 21:51 (UTC +04:00)

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has told President Vladimir Putin that Moscow's diplomats are finalising a 10-page response to US proposals for easing growing tensions in Ukraine, APA reports citing BBC.

During a carefully choreographed discussion on state television, Lavrov told the 69-year old Russian leader that the US had rejected several key Russian demands, including that Ukraine be prevented from joining Nato and a return to the organisation's pre-1997 borders.

"Of course, this cannot satisfy us," Lavrov said.

However, he told Putin that there was space for an agreement with the US to limit the deployment of intermediate-range and short-range ground-based missiles.

Such missiles were previously banned under the the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

But former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2019, citing the deployment of a new Russian cruise missile which he argued breached the treaty.