Nato’s secretary-general has ruled out creating “second-class” members of the military alliance to appease Moscow, ahead of a week of high-stakes diplomacy between the Kremlin and western powers that aims to avoid a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russia will hold talks with the US and Nato next week for discussions on security proposals drawn up by Moscow, which include a ban on Ukraine joining the US-led military alliance and giving the Kremlin a veto on military deployments in member states close to Russia.
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said these two proposals were unacceptable, after an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers from the alliance convened to discuss the upcoming Russia talks.