Putin will join the conversation with his own worries and will underline Russia’s opposition to any move to admit Ukraine to NATO’s armed alliance. Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said the presidents will decide how long their meeting will run.
Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will hold a video chat on Tuesday, according to the White House and the Kremlin, as tensions between the two countries rise over a Russian army buildup on the Ukrainian border, which is considered as a precursor to an invasion.
Biden will raise U.S. concerns about Russian military activity along the border and “reaffirm the United States’ support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who confirmed the call after receiving notification from Moscow on Saturday.
Putin will join the conversation with his own worries and will underline Russia’s opposition to any move to admit Ukraine to NATO’s armed alliance. Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, stated that “the presidents will decide themselves” how long their meeting will run.
Biden asked Putin to rein in Russia-based criminal cyber gangs launching ransomware attacks against the United States during their last phone discussion in July. Biden stated that the US would take whatever precautions are required to protect key infrastructure from such assaults.
Since then, ransomware attacks have continued, but none have been as concerning as the one in May that targeted a major gasoline pipeline and caused days of gas shortages in areas of the United States.
Russia is more adamant than ever that the United States guarantees Ukraine’s exclusion from NATO’s armed alliance. However, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated this week that Russia has no influence in other countries’ or the alliance’s expansion plans. Any such Russian demand to Biden, according to a number of former US and NATO diplomats, would be a nonstarter.
Meanwhile, according to a Biden administration source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the finding publicly, Russia has massed roughly 70,000 troops near its border with Ukraine and has begun planning for a possible invasion as soon as early next year.
Putin would face significant dangers if he went ahead with such an invasion.
According to US officials and former diplomats, while Russian President Vladimir Putin is certainly laying the groundwork for an invasion, Ukraine’s military is better armed and prepared today than in the past, and sanctions imposed by the West would cause considerable economic damage to Russia.
“What I’m doing is putting together what I believe will be the most complete and substantial set of actions to make it extremely difficult for Mr. Putin to do what people are concerned he would do,” Biden said on Friday.
Russia could invade Ukraine next month, according to Ukrainian officials. Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defence minister, estimated that there are 94,300 Russian troops near Ukraine and in Russia-annexed Crimea, and warned that a “large-scale escalation” might occur in January.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has accused a group of Russians and Ukrainians of plotting a coup in his country, alleging that the plotters attempted to enlist the support of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man.
Although Russia and Akhmetov have denied the existence of any scheme, the Russians have recently become more specific in their warnings to Ukraine and the United States.
According to a source close to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy, Biden will meet with him this week. This individual was not permitted to make public comments prior to the call’s announcement and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Putin would demand binding guarantees prohibiting NATO’s expansion into Ukraine during his call with Biden, according to the Kremlin. In remarks to reporters on Friday before leaving for a weekend visit at Camp David, Biden tried to deflect the demand.
“No one’s red line is acceptable to me,” Biden stated.
Biden and Putin will discuss a variety of themes in the US-Russia relationship, according to Psaki, “including strategic stability, cyber, and regional challenges.”
If penalties are imposed, she said Friday that the administration will consult with European partners. She made a reference to Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014, a Black Sea peninsula that had been under Ukrainian administration since 1954. In a seven-year battle that has claimed the lives of nearly 14,000 people, Russia has also backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Psaki stated, “We know what President Putin has done in the past.” “We can see that he is putting in place the capability to act quickly.”
Since Biden took office, relations between the United States and Russia have been shaky.
His administration has slapped penalties on Russian targets and chastised Putin for meddling in US elections, cyberattacks on American businesses, and the treatment of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned and imprisoned last year.
When Biden and Putin met in Geneva in June, Biden warned that if Russia exceeded certain red lines, such as attacking significant American infrastructure, his government would retaliate, with “devastating repercussions.”
