KYIV, Jan 19, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is
scheduled to arrive in Kyiv Wednesday for crisis talks with Ukraine's
leaders, as diplomatic efforts to dissuade Russia from attacking its pro-
Western neighbour falter.

   After talks last week failed to ease fears, the White House warned Tuesday
that Russia was ready to attack Ukraine at "any point".

   It was a marked intensification of its threat assessment ahead of a
meeting between Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expected
in Geneva on Friday.

   Ahead of that, the top US diplomat is scheduled to make a lightning visit
to Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine.

   It will be followed by a trip to Berlin on Thursday for four-way talks
with Britain, France and Germany to seek Western unity.

   "We're now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack on
Ukraine," the White House's Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on
Tuesday.

   "No option is off the table," she said, warning of an "extremely dangerous
situation".

   And she said that Russian President Vladimir Putin "has created this
crisis".

   Moscow has repeatedly denied that an invasion is planned.

   - 'Diplomatic off-ramp' -

   In a call between the US and Russian top diplomats ahead of Blinken's
trip, the Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov had called on Blinken "not to
replicate speculation about the allegedly impending 'Russian aggression'".

   US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Blinken "stressed the
importance of continuing a diplomatic path to de-escalate tensions". And a US
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Blinken's goal was to see
"if there is a diplomatic off-ramp" and "common ground" where Russia can be
persuaded to pull back from Ukraine.

   With tens of thousands of Russian troops massing on Ukraine's borders,
efforts have intensified to prevent tensions escalating into a new European
war.

   However, in a joint press conference with visiting German Foreign Minister
Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday, Lavrov said there would be no further
negotiations until the West responds to its demands for sweeping security
guarantees.

   They include a permanent ban on Ukraine joining NATO.

   Washington has rejected the demands.

   While the United States and its European allies have no plans to meet a
Russian attack against Ukraine with military force, the economic counter-
measures would be unlike any used in the past, Washington says.

   The US official said it was possible that Russia is not interested in a
diplomatic solution.

   "I think it's still too early to tell if the Russian government is
genuinely interested in diplomacy, if it is prepared to negotiate seriously
in good faith, or whether it will use discussions as a pretext to claim that
diplomacy didn't address Moscow's interests," the official said.

   Washington meanwhile warned that draft constitutional reforms in Belarus
could lead to the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in the country.

   Joint Russia-Belarus military exercises announced Tuesday by Minsk as
Russian troops arrived in the country were "beyond normal", a US official
said, and could presage a permanent Russian military presence involving both
conventional and nuclear forces.

   Kyiv has been battling a pro-Moscow insurgency in two breakaway regions
bordering Russia since 2014, when the Kremlin annexed Ukraine's Crimean
peninsula.

   The conflict in eastern Ukraine has so far left more than 13,000 dead.