European Union leaders urged Russia to return to peace talks with Ukraine and renewed their threat to impose unprecedented sanctions on Moscow should Russian armed forces cross the border. The warning came at the end of an EU summit on Friday.
The EU's call for a return to the negotiating table came as Russia said it had submitted draft documents to the United States outlining security arrangements that it wants to negotiate with Washington and its allies in the Nato military alliance.
Nato is suggesting it might be willing to discuss them.
US intelligence officials say Russia has moved 70,000 troops and is preparing for a possible invasion early next year.
Moscow denies it has any plans to attack, as it did in 2014 when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula, but says it wants guarantees that Ukraine will never join Nato.
Clear message
In a statement, the EU leaders underlined "the urgent need for Russia to de-escalate tensions caused by the military build up along its border with Ukraine and aggressive rhetoric".
The leaders repeated a message sent from the US, Britain and the G7 nations in recent weeks that any further military aggression against Ukraine would have "massive consequences".
The EU is divided over when to hit Moscow with sanctions.
France and Germany want to hold fire, expressing concern that such action could bring on an attack and believe that a diplomatic solution can be found.
Let there be no doubt: if Russia moves against Ukraine, the EU will be in a position to take sanctions that could extract a massive cost.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 17, 2021
We have done our work in that respect. pic.twitter.com/YKmXeeWsoe
Normandy talks
Both countries' leaders underlined Thursday the importance of reviving the Normandy talks, which have made little headway this year.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, whose country borders Russia, said the EU should not underestimate the threat the troop build up poses.
He warned that Moscow's actions are creating one of the worst security situations since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But Moscow saysit is merely reacting to what it perceives as agressive posturing by Nato. The pro-Putin news and propaganda outlet Russia Today reported that Russia was "ready to go head-to-head with NATO to discuss concerns over the risk of the bloc expanding closer towards its borders in Eastern Europe amid a stand-off between Western nations and Moscow".
Nato expansion
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the country is prepared to hold consultations, adding that Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov would be “ready to fly to any neutral country at any time to start the talks”.
The Kremlin official added that Russia was keen to start negotiations immediately.
From Moscow's perspective, Russia was betrayed after then Russian President Boris Yeltsin was led to believe, during top-level meetings in 1993, that Nato had no plans to expand eastwards, even though then US President Bill Clinton never excluded an enlargement of the alliance.
In 2014, Putin again attempted to grab back some of Russia's lost influence by annexing Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and supporting pro-independence movements in the country's eastern Donbass regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
(With wires)
