Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that the statements of the US administration about the possible dispatch of military personnel to Eastern Europe are fueling anti-Russian phobias and revanchist sentiments in Ukraine. He told RIA Novosti about this on Wednesday, December 15.
A senior Russian diplomat stressed that the words of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about studying the issue of sending American servicemen to Eastern Europe in the event of an aggravation of the situation in Ukraine are primarily aimed at "warming up revanchist sentiments in Kiev, warming up anti-Russian phobias and approaches of states that have declared themselves "frontline".
On December 14, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Glushko noted that there are chances for a substantive dialogue with Western countries, including at the site of the Russia–NATO Council (NRC), provided that the interests of European security come first. According to him, the situation in the sphere of European security has come to the dangerous point where a principled conversation is needed about all the factors affecting it, including NATO's open door policy.
Earlier, on December 13, Ryabkov said that if NATO countries do not respond to Moscow's demand for security guarantees, this will lead to a new round of confrontation. According to him, the Russian Federation fears the deployment in Europe of weapons prohibited by the INF Treaty (the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles).The lack of progress in solving this problem by diplomatic means will lead to the fact that the response of the Russian Federation will be military-technical, the diplomat noted.
On the same day, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the President of the United States Joe Biden, during a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, "clearly" voiced the specific reasons for Washington's concern about the situation around Ukraine. Thus, he answered the question about the existence of "conceptual differences" between the United States and Russia over Ukraine. At the same time, Kirby declined to comment on the nature and other details of these disagreements.
On December 12, the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said that after the conversation with Biden, Putin did not have any special reasons for joy, since the situation at the moment is very serious.
