Russia demands US, NATO response next week on Ukraine

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has strongly repeated its demand that NATO doesn’t expand eastward despite the rejection of that by the military alliance amid a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday described Moscow’s demands that NATO will neither expand nor deploy forces to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations as essential for the progress of diplomatic efforts to defuse soaring tensions over Ukraine. He argued that the deployment of NATO forces and weapons near Russia’s borders poses a security challenge that must be addressed immediately. Amid the tensions, Ukraine sustained a massive cyberattack Friday, which hit websites of multiple government agencies.