U.S. makes no advances in talks with Russia

Russia wants the United States to guarantee it will not let the former Soviet republic of Ukraine join the NATO security alliance. But U.S. diplomats have repeatedly said they cannot and will not make that concession. The two sides met in Geneva on Monday in an attempt to ease tensions between Moscow and the West. “It was not what you would call a negotiation,” U.S. envoy Wendy Sherman said after a day of talks with her Russian counterpart.

What if the talks fail? Russia has 100,000 troops stationed at the eastern border of Ukraine and has said it wants the NATO issue solved this month. NATO is concerned Russian President Vladimir Putin set the deadline as a pretext to launch an invasion into Ukraine if he doesn’t get the guarantees he seeks. Ukraine has fought Russian-backed separatists in its eastern regions since 2014.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Jill Nelson’s report on the origins of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.