US Secretary of State Antony flash, met with the Russian chancellor this Thursday (2nd) to personally alert him to the “serious consequences” that Russia would suffer if it invaded Ukraine and to ask him to seek a diplomatic way out of the crisis.

flash warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a meeting in Stockholm the day after declare that the United States is ready to react resolutely in the event of a Russian attack, including with harsh sanctions.

“The best way to avoid the crisis is through diplomacy, and that’s what I hope to discuss with Sergei,” he said. flash to reporters before the conversation with Lavrov.

He said that both Russia and Ukraine should fulfill their obligations under the 2014 Minsk peace process, designed to end the war between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces in the east of the former Soviet Republic.

The US is willing to facilitate this, he said. flash, but “if Russia decides to seek confrontation, there would be serious consequences.”

Lavrov told reporters that his country is ready to talk to Ukraine. “We as the president [Vladimir] Putin says, we don’t want any conflicts,” he said.

Ukraine is a major sticking point between Russia and the West, whose relations are at their worst in the three decades since the end of the Cold War. Ukraine says Russia has assembled more than 90,000 troops near its long common border.

The Russians accuse the Ukrainian government of seeking its own military reinforcement. Russia dismisses Ukrainian insinuations that it is preparing an attack as inflammatory, says it threatens no one and defends its right to mobilize soldiers as it sees fit.

Additional reporting by Niklas Polland and Johan Ahlander