US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called on Russian President Vladimir Putin from Kiev today to choose a "peaceful way" to end the crisis over Ukraine.
"I sincerely hope that we can stay on a diplomatic and peaceful path, but in the end it will be President Putin's decision," Blinken said during a visit to the US Embassy in Kyiv.
If Putin does not follow the diplomatic path, he will choose "confrontation" and this will have "consequences for Russia", warned Blinken.
A meeting between Blinken and the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, is planned for Friday, in another attempt to calm tensions.
Moscow denies that it is planning an attack on the neighboring country, but has asked for guarantees that NATO will not expand into Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, that it will not deploy weapons in those territories and that it will stop conducting military exercises near the Russian border.
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