Per the U.S. State Department’s notice on Monday, the United States ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, and the Russian government have a confirmed meeting; the purpose of this meeting is to urge the Kremlin and Moscow to allow “Consular access to all U.S. citizens detained in Russia, as stated in international law.”

Ned Price, the spokesperson of the State Department, said it is “Completely unacceptable” that the United States has been denied consular access to detained American citizens in Russia.

Brittney Griner, a WNBA All-Star player, was detained by Russia under possession charges of vape cartridges containing hash oil over a month ago. No change was reported in Griner’s case from mid-February, and the U.S. was only recently granted consular access as of Wednesday. “We were able to check on her condition; we will continue to work very closely with her legal team, with her broader network, to see to it that she is treated fairly,” Price told CNN.

Russia’s foreign ministry said earlier this week that it had summoned Sullivan to tell him that President Joe Biden calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “War criminal” had pushed bilateral ties to the brink of collapse. “It is awfully rich to hear a country speak about ‘inappropriate comments’ when that same country is engaged in mass slaughter, including strikes and attacks that have resulted in civilian lives,” Price told reporters.

President Biden met with NATO and G-7 allies this week in emergency sessions regarding Russia-Ukraine as the conflict reached the one-month mark, with talks about plans to strengthen troop rotations in countries along the southern portion of its eastern flank and contingency plans in case Russian aggression intensifies. “We are determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war,” NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg stated at the start of the meeting, paying praise to “The great courage of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian armed forces fighting for their freedom and their rights.”

NATO allies have stayed united in their response to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. Biden’s mission ahead of the meeting was “To ensure we stay united, to cement our collective resolve, to send a powerful message that we are prepared and committed to this for as long as it takes,” his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said.

A meeting that took place between Russian and US military officials earlier last week led to an outburst from a normally stoic Russian general, potentially hinting at greater moral problems in Russia’s military, according to the American officials present. The tense meeting was held at the Ministry of Defense in Moscow and is a rare instance of Russian and American defense officials sitting down in person since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

Demands and calls to action will not work at this stage; the conflict is fueled by long-standing, internal reasons and is putting hundreds of thousands of people in danger. The war needs to stop – Russian troops should never have entered Ukraine, to begin with, and each day they remain within their borders, they are subjecting everyone in the region to suffering, despite being the one inflicting pain or being inflicted on. Communication is direly needed at this point, and maybe even a regime change. The Russian people cannot be blindly complicit in Putin’s geopolitical ordeals; if his policies and actions no longer serve or represent the constituents, he probably is no longer the right person to serve as the figurehead of Russia. Furthermore, NATO and other sub-national groups need to supply Ukraine and nearby regions with safe ways to escape the wrath of Russia. However, if these world leaders could sit and communicate their grievances effectively and listen, many other alternatives could have arisen as opposed to this military conflict.