US Secretary of State Anthony BlinkenUN Feb 18US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to meet in Geneva, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview with the American NPR radio station. offer to meet next week in Europe. «As you heard, Secretary Blinken has invited Foreign Minister Lavrov to Geneva to sit down at the negotiating table. And we hope they will accept that and choose diplomacy over confrontation,» Thomas-Greenfield said. The text of the interview was distributed by the US Permanent Mission to the UN. The plans attributed to Russia to escalate the situation around Ukraine in Moscow are categorically denied and constantly declare that they do not threaten anyone, and all such statements are used as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier, Russia does not create any pretexts for a conflict situation around Ukraine. According to him, Russia does not rule out that the hysteria around Ukraine, hyped by the West, is aimed at covering Kiev's line of sabotaging the Minsk agreements on Donbass. According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, the information hysteria of the USA and NATO on Ukraine is generously framed by lies and fakes. Allegations that Russia is allegedly preparing provocations in Ukraine continue to come from the West, despite the return of Russian troops to their places of deployment after the exercises . On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. At a meeting with Putin, the head of the RF Ministry of Defense reported that «some of the exercises are coming to an end, some will be completed in the near future.» The official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said on Tuesday that the Southern and Western military districts of the Russian Federation began returning troops to their places of deployment. The withdrawal of the military to the places of deployment after the exercises is a common practice, there is nothing new, the press secretary of President Peskov told reporters earlier when asked if the withdrawal of troops means a de-escalation of the situation around Ukraine.
Lavrov urged the West «not to shirk a serious conversation» because of Ukraine
