US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he has cancelled his meeting in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, originally planned for Thursday, news agency MIA informs.
In light of Moscow’s recent actions towards Ukraine, Washington’s top diplomat said that it no longer made sense to hold talks with his Russian counterpart.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, had also announced earlier Tuesday that he would no longer be meeting with Lavrov.
Russia has been met with a rush of sanctions from Western nations after it recognized Ukraine’s rebel-held regions of Donetsk and Luhansk on Monday as independent and deployed forces to the region.
The escalation follows months of tensions driven by a build-up of Russian troops along Ukraine’s borders.
