Saturday, December 4th 2021
Announcement from Moscow
Biden and Putin will hold a meeting on Tuesday
According to the US, President Putin has deployed around 175,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine. Kiev warns of an invasion. Now the presidents of Russia and the USA want to discuss the situation directly. Both sides flex their muscles beforehand.
In the midst of heightened tensions in the Ukraine conflict, US President Joe Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin want to hold a video summit on Tuesday, according to the Kremlin. The conversation is planned for the evening (Moscow time), announced Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov. Washington accuses Moscow of preparing a military invasion of Ukraine, which the Russian government denies. Biden announced a series of “initiatives” to protect Ukraine from possible attack.
The duration of the exchange will be determined by the presidents themselves, said Peskov, according to Russian news agencies. Moscow had already announced the video call on Friday, but without giving an exact date. In June Putin and Biden met for a summit in Geneva.
The tensions between Russia and the West in the Ukraine conflict have recently intensified significantly. In view of Russian troop movements on the border with Ukraine, there are fears that Moscow could attack the neighboring country. The government in Kiev warned on Friday of a major Russian attack in late January.
These fears were now fueled by a report in the Washington Post. Accordingly, Moscow’s plans include “extensive movements of a hundred battalions of tactical units with an estimated 175,000 men, along with tanks, artillery and equipment”.
Moscow denies the attack plans. In return, the Kremlin accuses Ukraine of letting the West arm itself with military equipment and denounces NATO military maneuvers near the Russian borders. Putin warned the West and Ukraine against crossing the Kremlin’s “red lines”.
When asked by reporters on Friday at the White House whether he would accept Putin’s “red line”, Biden replied, “I will not accept anyone’s red line.” At the same time, the US President announced that he wanted to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine with a series of “initiatives”.