Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Tuesday that Russia had no say over whether Ukraine could join NATO, a topic at the centre of high-stakes talks between the West and Russia this week.

"Russia has no voting right on the issue of Ukraine's NATO membership. This is a 'red line' that neither Ukraine nor our partners will cross," Kuleba told news site RBK Ukraine.

"The collective West will not agree to provide Russia with 'legal guarantees' on the alliance's eastward non-enlargement, as this would be its strategic defeat," the minister added.

Moscow has demanded wide-ranging security guarantees from Washington and its NATO allies and insists it has been promised that the bloc would not expand eastward.

In December, Russia unveiled proposals to contain the United States and NATO in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, saying that the US-led alliance should not admit Ukraine or Georgia as new members or establish bases in ex-Soviet countries.

This week Russia and the West kicked off a week of high-stakes diplomacy amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

After more than seven hours of negotiations in Geneva on Monday, Russian and US officials offered to keep talking, but there was no any breakthrough.

The Kremlin said Tuesday the talks were a "positive" start to continued dialogue but pointed to a lack of results.

A meeting of the NATO-Russia Council will take place in Brussels on Wednesday.

Russia seized the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and backs an insurgency in eastern Ukraine, in a conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.

US reassures European allies after Russia talks
Brussels (AFP) Jan 11, 2022 –

The top US negotiator on the crisis between the West and Russia over Moscow's military build-up on Ukraine's border briefed NATO allies on Tuesday, after inconclusive talks with her Kremlin opposite number.

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman flew to the alliance's Brussels headquarters from Geneva, where on Monday she had held a meeting with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Some European officials have complained that Washington is taking the lead in talks with Moscow.

They fear being excluded from moves to resolve tensions on the Ukraine border and to head off confrontation.

But Sherman insisted that European allies are being kept in the loop, after meeting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and ambassadors from the NATO member states.

"The United States is committed to working in lockstep with our allies and partners to urge de-escalation and respond to the security crisis caused by Russia," she tweeted.

With Stoltenberg, Sherman "affirmed a unified NATO approach toward Russia, balancing deterrence and dialogue, and stressed our unwavering support for Ukraine".

And, in a tweet addressed to Ukraine's deputy minister of foreign affairs Emine Dzhaparova, she assured Kiev that the allies "will not make decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine".

After more than seven hours of negotiations in Geneva on Monday, the Russian and US officials both offered to keep talking, though there was no sign of a breakthrough.

The high-stakes meeting came as fears simmered of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow has demanded wide-ranging security concessions from Washington and its NATO allies, which in turn have threatened severe economic sanctions if there is any Russian attack.