Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to speak by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on February 1 as tensions continue to simmer over a Russian troop buildup near its borders with Ukraine.
The conversation is set to be the first direct dialogue between the top diplomats since Washington submitted its written responses last week to Russia's security demands amid the Ukraine crisis.
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Before the talks, Russia's embassy in Washington said on February 1 that Moscow will not back down in the face of U.S. threats of sanctions.
"We are not going to back away and stand at attention, listening to the threats of U.S. sanctions," the embassy said on Facebook, adding that it is "Washington, not Moscow, that generates tensions."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also is set to travel to Kyiv on February 1 for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, adding to the flurry of high-level diplomacy.
"As a friend and a democratic partner, the U.K. will continue to uphold Ukraine's sovereignty in the face of those who seek to destroy it," Johnson said in a statement.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to have a phone call with Johnson on February 1. The call was originally planned for January 31, but Johnson had to reschedule the call for unspecified reasons.
"The talks are not on the schedule today," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on February 1. "But we don’t rule out that a later time will be agreed upon."
The call between Lavrov and Blinken comes a day after tensions were on full display at a meeting of the UN Security Council in which U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia intended to increase the number of its troops in Belarus by mid-February as part of its threat to Ukraine.
Thomas-Greenfield, speaking during a stormy debate, told the Security Council that Russia’s buildup already was the largest mobilization of troops in Europe in decades.
"And as we speak, Russia is sending even more forces and arms to join them," she said, accusing Russia of planning to build its military force in Belarus to 30,000 within weeks.
She also accused Russia of attempting to paint Ukraine and Western countries as the aggressors "to fabricate a pretext for attack.”
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya accused the United States of trying to "whip up hysteria" by pushing a Security Council debate. He said there was "no proof" Moscow was planning military action and said Russia had never confirmed the West's assertion that it had amassed 100,000 troops near its neighbor.
He said Russia frequently deployed troops in its own territory and said that Ukraine's crisis was a domestic issue.
Thomas-Greenfield responded by saying the provocations came from Russia "not from us or other members of this council."
U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the United States presented "the full nature of Russia's threat to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity" during the Security Council meeting.
Speaking later at the White House, Biden said the United States is pursuing diplomacy to resolve the crisis but warned Russia that "we are ready no matter what happens."
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French President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke by phone with Putin again on January 31 and that both leaders welcomed progress made in talks within the Normandy format bringing together the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France to help end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Both presidents want to continue the dialogue with a view toward implementing the Minsk peace accords, Macron said in a statement.
Diplomats have tried to breathe new life into the accords, which contain the groundwork for a final settlement in the Donbas. The deal has long been hamstrung by differing interpretations of its contents and the process for implementing them.
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British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss plans to travel to Ukraine with Johnson. She said on January 31 that the British government will be ready by February 10 to impose "wide-ranging" sanctions against Russia in the event of an invasion and that the sanctions will target anyone providing strategic or economic support to the Russian regime.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the British warning "very disturbing," saying it made Britain less attractive to investors and would hurt British companies.
"An attack by a given country on Russian business implies retaliatory measures, and these measures will be formulated based on our interests, if necessary," Peskov said.