White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her daily briefing on Friday that US intelligence data showed that Russia “is laying its groundwork to have the option to fabricate a pretext to invade its neighbor Ukraine.”

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby made a similar statement, assuring that Russia positioned a group of troops to orchestrate a plan justifying its entry into Ukraine.

Despite such accusations, Mr. Kirby pointed out that Washington does not believe Russian President Vladimir Putin has already made up his mind to invade Ukraine and claimed the US government is in favor of a diplomatic solution.

These statements came at the end of a week of meetings held between both nations on security issues.

Russia-NATO talks aimed at defusing tensions between both sides concluded with not so much progress.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday said the United States only uses NATO to keep its influence over member countries and, faced with US threats, he replied that Moscow is ready for any events.

Likewise, Mr. Lavrov enlightened that during recent talks, NATO considered that Moscow’s call for NATO non-expansion to the east cannot be accomplished under the argument that only NATO member countries decide who to accept and from whom to receive requests.

Mr. Lavrov pointed out that Russia´s stance is not based on NATO documents, but on agreements drawn up for the entire Euro-Atlantic community, ahead of the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

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