The American commander of NATO forces in Europe says he has not ruled out deploying U.S. soldiers to counter Russian moves in Ukraine. Commenting on NATO deployments in eastern European states, Air Force General Philip Breedlove said he would not “write off involvement by any nation, to include the United States.” Breedlove’s comments come ahead of next week’s talks between the United States, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union. In Washington, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland played down expectations.

Victoria Nuland: “The Russians agreed that they would finally sit down over the next 10 days with Ukraine and the EU and the U.S. to discuss de-escalation, demobilization, support for the elections and constitutional reform. I have to say that we don’t have high expectations for these talks, but we do believe it is very important to keep that diplomatic door open.”