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WASHINGTON — No real progress has been made between American, Russian, and other European diplomats as the Russian army is still cozying up to the Ukrainian border.

The White House has said that “the door remains open” for a diplomatic solution for Russia and Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is complaining that the U.S. and allies are ignoring Russian security concerns.

The concerns pertain to Russia’s desire to have Ukraine banned from ever joining NATO. This is what Sen. Todd Young, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is calling a ploy by Putin to keep a buffer between Russia and the western world.

“What Vladimir Putin would like to do is either to gain control of some of these former Warsaw Pact country governments or tee a friend government supported from within,” Young told CNN. “He’s trying to reconstitute, in a piecemeal fashion, the former Warsaw Pact as a security buffer for his own country.”

The Warsaw Pact was dissolved in 1991 after being formed in the ’50s as a counter organization to NATO made up of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc socialist governments.

One way he says Putin has hooked into sewing division among European countries is through Norm Stream 2 pipeline, which provides Russian oil to Germany. Young said that at some point Germany is going to have to choose how dependant they want to be on Russia as talks to keep peace continue.

Young wants to see extreme economic sanctions placed on the pipeline, not just by the U.S. but all other NATO member countries, if Russia ends up invading Ukraine. He stresses that making the right decisions going forward is key with other “malign world leaders” watching the situation unfold.

Young anticipates leaders like Chinese President Xi Xinping to wait and see what happens before China decides on how it will respond.