Diplomacy onus lies with Moscow: Kamala Harris

NEW YORK: US vice-president Kamala Harris on Friday heralded

Nato

unity during the escalating Ukraine crisis and warned

Russia

that the US and Western allies stood ready to respond with tough sanctions if President Putin moves forward with an invasion.


“We remain open to diplomacy. The onus is on Russia at this point, to demonstrate that it is serious in that regard,” Harris said at

Munich Security Conference

. Meanwhile, at a news conference in Moscow, Putin said Russia needed to work on increasing its economic sovereignty. He said the

West

would always find a pretext to impose sanctions.