Ukraine is really looking forward to military and security assistance from NATO members
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Russia has used the talks with the US to try to destroy the trust between the US and the EU, according to Ukrainian political analyst Petro Burkovskyi.
"Russia uses these talks in order to destroy trust between the United States and European partners and tries to demonstrate that the United States are ready to discuss its security in Europe and discuss its policy in Europe behind the European partners."
Burkovskyi was commenting on Tuesday on the highly anticipated Russia-US talks over Ukraine and other security issues on Monday.
The talks in Geneva were aimed at defusing tensions over Ukraine, but offered no sign of immediate progress.
Moscow went in insisting on guarantees to halt NATO's eastward expansion and even roll back the military alliance's deployments in Eastern Europe - the demands that Washington had earlier firmly rejected as a non-starter.
"The long-term important objective for Russia, which it also pursued during the recent talks, is that it tries to discourage the United States from arming the countries in the central, northern and eastern Europe," said Petro Burkovskyi, a senior fellow at Democratic Initiatives Foundation.
Last month, Moscow submitted draft security documents demanding that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back the alliance's military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe. Washington and its allies have refused to provide such pledges, but said they are ready for the talks.
The demands, contained in a proposed Russia-US security treaty and a security agreement between Moscow and NATO, were drafted amid soaring tensions over a Russian troop build-up near Ukraine that has stoked fears of a possible invasion.
Russia has denied it has plans to attack its neighbor but pressed for legal guarantees that would rule out NATO expansion and weapons deployment there.
"Discouraging the United States from re arming, central and European and eastern European nations, Russia is building, it is trying to build its sphere of influence in the in the Europe. Meanwhile, Ukraine is not thinking about the immediate membership in NATO. Ukraine is really looking forward to military and security assistance from NATO members."
After the Russia-US meeting, Moscow and NATO representatives were expected to meet later this week, as well as Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which includes the United States.
