US Sec of State Blinken holds press conference after meeting Russia’s FM Lavrov over Ukraine crisis

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to hold a press conference in Geneva on Friday, January 21, after his meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The talks follow last week’s meeting between Russian and US diplomats in Geneva over Ukraine and other security issues, followed by the NATO-Russia Council meeting the next day. Russia insists that NATO halts plans to expand militarily into Eastern Europe and Ukraine. The US, NATO and their European partners have called on Russia to end its build-up of military forces on the border with Ukraine. Friday’s talks are preceded by Blinken’s tour of European capitals that included stops in Kiev, Ukraine for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday and in Berlin, Germany for a meeting with Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, as well as UK Deputy Foreign Minister James Cleverly, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as part of the ‘Quad’.