Russia–NATO relations

The Kremlin claims the West broke a promise it made in the 1990s not to expand NATO, and is now using this claim to justify threats to invade Ukraine.
One of Russia's consistent demands has been for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to stop expanding to the east and pledge never to include Kiev in the security alliance.

Additional US troops on alert in Eastern Europe will not be part of the 8,000 US troops ready to support the NATO Response Force, said Defense Secretary John Kirby.

The United States has put 8,500 troops on High Alert to be Sent in Europe

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce today that his country is proposing to strengthen NATO's eastern flank, including sending Typhoon fighter jets to patrol the airspace of Bulgaria and Romania. They will operate from Cyprus, where there are two British airbases.

"As you have heard from the Secretary of State, the National Security Adviser and others, we do not know if the Russians are playing diplomatic games, but we hope they are not playing. Our intention is to seriously move diplomacy forward so that its doors remain open and if the Russians are ready for that, they will move through diplomacy," said a White House spokeswoman.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the representatives of that alliance, in coordination with the United States, sent requests to Moscow, which can be summarized in three areas, concerning NATO-Russia relations, European security and arms control.

The main risks facing Bulgaria are related to security in the Black Sea region, as well as hybrid and cyber-attacks. This was stated by Foreign Minister Teodora Genchovska in connection with the Russia-Ukraine conflict and NATO-Russian tensions during an extraordinary session of parliament scheduled at the request of GERB.

Former Russian President, and now the vice president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev stated that the process of negotiations on security guarantees is the only way to resolve the current situation.
"To avoid war, you must negotiate", he added.

US Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan conveyed to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs the American response to Russia's requests in the field of security, Reuters and TASS reported.

The United States on Wednesday rejected Russia's key demand to bar Ukraine from NATO and said it believed Moscow was ready to invade but offered what it called a new "diplomatic path" out of the crisis.

Ljubljana – Professor Boštjan Udovič criticised Russia and the US for not making efforts to reduce the growing tensions on the Ukrainian border as he commented on the situation for the STA on Tuesday. He labelled the conflict as muscle flexing similar to that witnessed in Georgia in 2008.