If russia decides to invade ukraine. for now the focus is on diplomacy and the talks are moving from here in geneva to brussels and vienna to include more countries including talks with nato on wednesday. alex marquardt, thank you so much. cnn s matthew chance is live in moscow. matthew, russia has not taken any steps to de-escalate the situation leading up to the talks. what does the kremlin have to say about this week s negotiations? well, i mean, it s playing down, frankly, jake, any expectations of a solid breakthrough when it comes to this raft of negotiations being engaged in over this week. it says it s got these red lines that it s put out there. sort of extraordinary demands. first of all for nato not to be expanded any further towards its borders. it sees that as a national security threat but also for military activity to be scaled back inside countries that join nato after the fall of the soviet union. obviously, these are the kinds
Along ukraine s borders. the situation in ukraine reporter: the russian side warned of growing risks of confrontation but told reporters in geneva that russia has no plans to attack ukraine. while complaining that their demand, that ukraine never join nato is falling on deaf ears. we underscore that for us it s absolutely mandatory to make sure that ukraine never, never ever becomes member of nato. reporter: on sunday, secretary of state tony blinken told jake that is not on the table. and russia has a clear choice. there are two paths before us. a path of dialogue and diplomacy to try to resolve some of these differences and avoid a confrontation. the other path is confrontation and massive consequences for russia if it renews its aggression on ukraine. reporter: those consequences would be unprecedented, expansive economic sanctions on
Russia, as well as more military assets moving into eastern europe and ukraine. while both sides emerged without any real victory, discussions did move forward on other issues. including the positioning of missiles that point at each other and how the two countries could carry out military exercises with more transparency. but it remains to be seen whether russia is taking this diplomacy seriously. or intends to invade ukraine regardless. we have to be prepared that russia was using this week of diplomacy and the meeting with the united states as a pretext for conflict. that they very well may walk away from these discussions and declare that diplomacy has failed. reporter: jake, we have just learned from numerous sources speaking to our colleagues that in the lead up to these talks just a few weeks ago in late december, the biden administration released another $200 million in military aid for ukraine. of course, that could go way up
Choose to walk. the path of diplomacy, dialogue that could have the potential to lead to de-escalation or the path of defense. and deterrence. so even today, as we were starting down this path of dip lomacy and dialogue, to see if we could achieve progress through reciprocal measures with the russian federation, we re continuing to work closely with allies, partners. that includes nato, european allies, ukrainian partners on this path of defense and deterrence. if moscow makes clear that they have no interest in this diplomacy. what i can say about today it was substantive, frank, candid, useful. also eight hours. so it wasn t for the faint of heart. we re very fortunate to have representing us deputy secretary of state wendy sherman who, of course, is no stranger to the russians. no stranger to some of the most pressing challenges we ve faced and face now. that includes iran, north korea and just about everything else under the son. secretary of state blinken told me that russia has