The White House has announced that a new meeting will take place between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart this Sunday. Russian military deployment at the borders will be on the menu for discussion.
US President Joe Biden will call his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, a few days after meeting with Vladimir Putin, accused of massing troops on the Russian-Ukrainian border with a view to a possible invasion. During this conversation, Joe Biden will reaffirm to the Ukrainian President “American support for the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine“, According to a White House official.
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He will also discuss “Russian military deployment to Ukraine’s borders and will review preparations for upcoming diplomatic meetings aimed at easing tension in the region“, Added this source.
Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday he was impatient to discuss with Joe Biden “means of coordinating (their) actions in the interest of peace in Ukraine and security in Europe“.
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Kiev and its Western allies accuse Moscow of having massed tens of thousands of soldiers on the country’s borders in anticipation of a possible attack. For its part, Russia claims that its security requires the prohibition of any expansion of NATO, perceived as an existential threat, and the end of Western military activities that it claims to observe near Russian borders.
Talks on January 10
Joe Biden, who multiplies the warnings to Vladimir Putin, assured to have once again warned the Russian president against an attempted invasion of Ukraine during their telephone interview on Thursday. “I made it clear to President Putin that we would adopt severe sanctions and that we would increase our presence in Europe, among our NATO allies.Joe Biden said Friday.
“We were clear: he cannot, I repeat, he cannot invade Ukraine“, He told reporters in his stronghold of Wilmington, Delaware, where he spends the end of the year holidays. The Kremlin had indicated that further sanctions against Moscow would be a “colossal mistake“.
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At the end of the call – the second between the two leaders in less than a month – Moscow had argued that Joe Biden had pledged not to deploy “offensive weapons” in Ukraine. Affirmation immediately minimized by the White House, which assured that it was only a confirmation of the current policy and not “a new commitment“.
On January 10, Russia and the United States will begin talks on Ukraine in Geneva. Led by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and her Russian counterpart Sergei Riabkov, they will be followed on January 12 by a Russia-NATO meeting, then on January 13 by a meeting within the framework of the OSCE.