US doesn't intend to deploy missiles in Ukraine amid crisis in Eastern Europe, says Biden

US President Joe Biden stated that his country has neither deployed any missiles on Ukrainian territory nor has any plans to do so in the future. "In Ukraine, neither the US nor North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has missiles. We do not intend to put them in future as well," Biden stated, as per Tass news agency. He further stated that they are not targetting the people of Russia and do not seek to destabilise the country. 

On December 17, 2021, Russia's Foreign Ministry presented draft proposals on security guarantees between Moscow, the United States, and the NATO countries in Europe. The proposals seek to restrict NATO from expanding in eastern Europe. Among several other terms, it also calls for prohibiting the US and Russia from placing intermediate and shorter-range missiles within striking distance of each other's territory. Although US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg outlined the documents' fundamental provisions, the American side requested that they must not be made public.

US, NATO did not address Moscow's primary security concerns: Russia

Meanwhile, Russia claimed that the US and NATO did not address Moscow's primary concerns in their written responses. On Monday, February 14, Russia's President Vladimir Putin reviewed the United States' and NATO's responses with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The Foreign Minister notified the President about these responses, emphasising that NATO and the United States had responded negatively to Russia's key concerns, as per the Tass news agency.  

Russia refuses to accept joint response on security guarantees 

Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated that Moscow cannot accept a joint response to Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's letter regarding the principle of the indivisibility of security. "We are unable to accept a collective response that resembles mutual responsibility. By avoiding the question, the West is implying that it does not want to accept the agreements made through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Russia-NATO Council, and is instead attempting to secure its own security at our expense," Zakharova stated, as per Sputnik. She further added that Russia is expecting separate responses from each addressee on the security guarantee. 

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