Russia will send the U.S. a letter today with a reaction to the proposals on the so-called "security guarantees" demanded by the Russian side. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this, TASS reported.

"Russia will send the U.S. a letter today with a reaction to the proposals on security guarantees, it will be published," Lavrov said.

Also on Thursday, at a press conference following talks with Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio, Sergey Lavrov, responding to a question about whether the escalation around Ukraine would end on February 20 after the end of Russian-Belarusian exercises, said that it does not depend on Russia, because it is not Moscow that is engaged in inflaming tensions.

"The question about February 20 is not up to me," he replied. - February 20 is the end of our exercise "Union Resoluteness," as it has been announced. Whether the escalation [around Ukraine] will end on February 20, I don't know, because we are not the ones inflaming it, we are not the ones doing it," Lavrov noted.

Commenting on the positions of some Western partners, who were puzzled why Moscow was pushing its security initiatives when "no one and nothing was threatening," Lavrov urged respect for Russia's concerns. "Russia will certainly decide for itself how and by what means to ensure its security," he stressed.

Note that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO had not yet received a response from the Russian Federation regarding the so-called security guarantees demanded by the Russian side.