"Our Secretary of State has accepted the invitation to have a meeting with [Russian] Foreign Minister Lavrov, or engage with him, next Wednesday," Psaki said during a press briefing.
Moreover, she added that Blinken's plans to negotiate with Lavrov would remain in place until Russia decides to launch an alleged "invasion" of Ukraine. Psaki stressed that the US remains committed to "leaving the door open for diplomacy."
Russia has repeatedly conveyed it is ready to engage in meaningful dialogue to resolve security concerns in Eastern Europe, including NATO's expansion toward the East near Russian borders. Moscow said it is not satisfied with the response the West has provided on Russia's security proposals.
The meeting between the two diplomats comes amid the deteriorating situation in the south-east of Ukraine, as on Thursday the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics announced dozens of attacks by Ukrainian forces.
The leadership of the DPR and LPR announced the temporary evacuation of citizens to Russia's Rostov region in connection with the possibility of Ukraine's invasion. The evacuation primarily concerns women, children and the elderly.
The plans attributed to Russia to escalate the situation in Ukraine are categorically denied by Moscow, which repeatedly declares that Russia is not threatening anyone, and all Western claims are used as an excuse to place more NATO military equipment near Russian borders.
As Lavrov said earlier, Russia is not creating any provocations for a conflict situation in Ukraine. According to him, Russia does not rule out that the hysteria surrounding the country, hyped by the West, is aimed at providing cover for Kiev's sabotage of the Minsk agreements on Donbas.
The Kremlin said that the media hysteria of the US and NATO on Ukraine is generously framed by misinformation and fakes, despite the return of Russian troops from the border regions to their places of deployment after the military exercises.