AMN/ WEB DESK
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks in Geneva today over the Ukraine crisis. The United States has called on Russia to pull back thousands of troops it has massed near the border with Ukraine, warning any incursion would be met with a swift, severe and united response from the White House and its partners. Moscow denies it is planning an attack, and demands that the US-headed NATO military alliance end activity in Eastern Europe and Ukraine and never embrace the former Soviet republic as a new member.