U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken participated via videoconference at the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, following his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday.
The Brussels meeting was chaired by Josep Borrell, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
It comes as tensions soared between Russia and the West over concerns that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine.
On Monday NATO outlined potential troop and ship deployments, Britain said it would withdraw some diplomats from Kyiv, and Ireland denounced upcoming Russian war games off its coast as unwelcome.
Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border, demanding that NATO promise it will never allow Ukraine to join and that other actions, such as stationing alliance troops in former Soviet bloc countries, be curtailed.
Some of these, like any pledge to permanently bar Ukraine, are nonstarters for NATO—creating a seemingly intractable deadlock that many fear can only end in war.
Russia denies it is planning an invasion.
