Tuesday, December 7th, 2021
Before the video summit with Putin
Biden and allies are discussing Ukraine
Biden and Putin will meet this Tuesday to discuss the conflict in Ukraine. The US president will coordinate with his western allies – including Chancellor Merkel – beforehand. You appeal to Russia to de-escalate tensions.
Before the eagerly awaited summit talks between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the US was looking to join forces with its European allies. At a conference call on Monday evening, the heads of state and government of Germany, USA, France, Italy and Great Britain expressed their “determination” that the “sovereignty” of Ukraine must be “respected”, as the French Elysée Palace announced.
The Russian military has gathered tens of thousands of soldiers on the border with Ukraine, which has fueled fears in the West that Putin might invade Ukraine. According to a senior government official in Washington, should Russia actually attack Ukraine, the US does not want to intervene directly militarily. Instead, the White House is considering more “support for the Ukrainian army”, “harsh economic sanctions” and a “substantial increase in support and capacity for our NATO allies”. This means that more US soldiers could be stationed in Eastern Europe.
The USA has announced that it will coordinate closely with Kiev and its most important allies in Europe in the tense situation. As Paris announced on Monday evening, the five leaders affirmed their readiness “to work for the maintenance of peace and security in Europe”.
Accordingly, they again appealed to Putin to continue negotiations to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine in the so-called Normandy format. In addition to Russia and Ukraine, Germany and France are also involved in the talks. The White House said after the meeting that the group “agreed” that diplomacy was “the only way to resolve the conflict” in eastern Ukraine.
“With people like you we will definitely win”
Before Biden speaks to Putin via video switch on Tuesday afternoon German time, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is supposed to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj. After the video summit with Putin, Biden wants to personally inform Zelenskyj about the conversation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was not expecting a “breakthrough” from the talks. Nevertheless, it is “always better to talk to each other”.
Zelenskyi paid a visit to soldiers on the front line in the east of his country on the eve of the video summit. He visited positions in the Donetsk region and thanked the soldiers “for protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” as the presidential office in Kiev announced. “With people like you we will definitely win,” said Zelenskyi.
Pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian army have been fighting in eastern Ukraine since 2014 after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula. In the conflict, Russia supports the separatists who have proclaimed so-called People’s Republics in Luhansk and Donetsk. More than 13,000 people have died in the conflict so far.
The tensions between Russia and the West in the Ukraine conflict had recently intensified significantly. Fears of a military escalation were fueled by a report in the Washington Post. Moscow has planned “extensive movements of a hundred battalions of tactical units with an estimated 175,000 men, along with tanks, artillery and equipment”.
It is also conceivable that Putin will use the troops that have concentrated on the border with Ukraine to put pressure on Biden. Putin wants a guarantee that the former Soviet republic will not become a member of NATO.