In a mansion overlooking Lake Leman, Switzerland; A meeting is scheduled between Sergey Lavrov and Anthony Blinken, in the latest step of an intense diplomatic process that began 11 days ago in Geneva between their aides on Ukraine and other files.

Before the meeting, statements emerged.

In a sharp statement, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, "Moscow intends to invade its neighbor despite threats of tough response if that happens." confirmed; Determined to respond to any "Russian invasion" of Ukraine "unitedly, swiftly and ruthlessly."

"It's a critical moment, and we really don't expect our differences to be settled here and today," he said.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow is looking forward to Washington's response to its initiative on security guarantees.

"When you contacted me on the phone and proposed to hold this meeting in order to discuss our concerns in more detail, we saw it as a useful idea because we hope that it will help you to prepare detailed responses to all our suggestions and to provide counter-suggestions if you have them," Lavrov said.

Lavrov pointed out that the Russian side in the last two days had seen many materials published by the US State Department regarding what it described as "the widespread Russian disinformation campaign," adding: "I have looked at these materials with great interest, and I hope that there was someone inside the US State Department who was not involved." In preparing it, he focused on the essence of our proposals that we delivered to you.”

In response to Blinken's recent announcement that he does not expect a breakthrough from today's meeting, the Russian Foreign Minister said: "We also do not expect a breakthrough from this meeting, but we expect responses to our proposals. Our proposals are very clear.