Related Post
The president of United States, Joe Biden, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will hold a video call on Tuesday to discuss military tensions over Ukraine and other issues.
Biden wants to discuss the concerns of USA about Russia’s military surge on the border with Ukraine, a US source said on Saturday, as well as strategic stability, cyber and regional issues.
“We are aware of Russia’s actions for a long time and my expectation is that we are going to have a long discussion with Putin,” Biden told reporters on Friday as he left for a weekend trip to Camp David. “I don’t accept anyone’s red lines,” he said.
The two leaders will also discuss bilateral relations and the implementation of the agreements reached at their Geneva summit in June, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
“The conversation will actually take place on Tuesday,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters. “Bilateral relations, of course Ukraine and compliance with the agreements reached in Geneva are the main (points) on the agenda,” he said.
More than 94,000 Russian soldiers are concentrated near the borders of Ukraine. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Friday that Moscow may be planning a full-scale military offensive by the end of January, citing intelligence reports.
Biden will reaffirm US support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the US source said. The exact time of the call was not disclosed. The White House declined to comment.
The US leader said on Friday that he and his advisers are preparing a comprehensive set of initiatives aimed at deterring Putin from an invasion. He did not elaborate, but Washington has discussed partnering with European allies to impose more sanctions on Russia.
Moscow accuses Kiev of pursuing its own military consolidation. It has dismissed as inflammatory suggestions that it is preparing for an attack on its southern neighbor and has defended its right to deploy troops on its own territory as it sees fit.
US officials say they do not yet know what Putin’s intentions are, adding that while intelligence points to preparations for a possible invasion of Ukraine, it is unclear whether a final decision has been made on the matter.
Relations between the United States and Russia have deteriorated for years, notably with the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, its intervention in Syria in 2015, and the US intelligence charges of meddling in the 2016 elections won by the now-former president. Donald Trump.
But they have become more volatile in recent months.
The two leaders have had a face-to-face meeting since Biden took office in January, in talks held in Geneva last June. They last spoke on the phone on July 9. Biden likes direct conversations with world leaders, seeing them as a way to de-escalate tensions.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this week in Stockholm that Washington and its European allies would impose “severe costs and consequences on Russia if it takes more aggressive measures against Ukraine.”
