Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will lead security talks in Geneva on January 10, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday.

As the ministry wrote, “the agenda focuses on Russia’s draft documents on security guarantees.”

?#Zakharova: On January 10, interagency delegations from Russia & the US, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov and Deputy Secretary of State @wendyrsherman, are expected to hold talks in Geneva.

????The agenda focuses on Russia’s draft documents on security guarantees. pic.twitter.com/3AWjvC5jEq

— MFA Russia ?? (@mfa_russia) December 30, 2021

Russia is then set to hold talks with NATO in Brussels on January 12, before a broader meeting including Russia, the United States and other European countries on January 13, which Russia’s foreign ministry said would take place in Vienna.

The Kremlin has alarmed Western countries by massing tens of thousands of troops near its border with Ukraine in the past two months. Moscow denies planning to attack Ukraine and says it has the right to move its troops on its own soil as it sees fit.

During a recent telephone conversation between the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry Zbigniew Rau and the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the government officials stressed the need for coordinated action supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. They also warned that any Russian aggression against Ukraine would lead to serious consequences for the Kremlin.

As Wiktor Ross, former chargé d’affaires of the Polish embassy in Russia and head of the Polish diplomatic mission in Moldova (1994-2000) and Armenia (2003-2004), said in an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP) last week, “a limited invasion of Ukraine is theoretically possible, but the potential consequences of such a step… would cost the Kremlin too much.”

He assessed, “it could become the nail in the Putin regime’s coffin.”