But this summit “can only be held if Russia does not invade Ukraine”, warned the French presidency. Joe Biden will meet Vladimir Putin “if an invasion has not taken place”, the White House has confirmed, in the absence of comments from the Kremlin at first.
“If an invasion did not take place”
The United States is “committed to continuing diplomacy until such time as an invasion begins,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “President Biden has agreed in principle to a meeting with President Putin […] if an invasion has not taken place”.
“We are also prepared to inflict swift and severe consequences if Russia chooses war instead,” Ms Psaki warned, however, “and currently Russia appears to be continuing its preparations for a full-scale attack on the Ukraine very soon”.
The content of the summit will be prepared by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov when they meet next Thursday.
Diplomatic victory
This announcement by Paris comes as Russia and Ukraine continued on Sunday to accuse each other of being responsible for the new fighting in the separatist east of Ukraine. After his visit to Moscow in early February, Emmanuel Macron snatched this diplomatic victory after two talks on the same day on Sunday with Vladimir Putin.
His second meeting with Vladimir Putin took place in the evening, after the French president had spoken to his American counterpart Joe Biden, confirming his role as mediator between the two former Cold War enemy powers.
This surprise announcement contrasts with the warnings of an imminent intervention by Moscow, according to the West, Antony Blinken repeating again on Sunday that Russia was “about” to invade Ukraine.
Troop deployment
Satellite images show the deployment of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.
AFP
Images from the US satellite imagery company Maxar, however, show new deployments of Russian troops and military equipment on the Ukrainian border. These new photos taken on Sunday show traces of vehicles crossing snowy fields, surrounded by woods and lined with roads.
Westerners fear that the intensification of fighting for several days on the front line will serve as a pretext for Russia, which has massed 150,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian borders, to invade its pro-Western neighbor.
Vladimir Putin attributes this outbreak of violence to the account of Ukrainian “provocations”, while the separatists ordered the evacuation of civilians and the mobilization of men able to fight.
Provocative shootings and evacuation of civilians
The evacuation order prompted 53,000 civilians out of three million living in the separatist zone to reach Russia, according to Moscow, and a state of emergency was declared in the Russian region of Kursk.
About 53,000 civilians were evacuated from the tense region.
AFP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounces “provocative fire” by Moscow-sponsored rebels and calls for the resumption of negotiations with Russia under the aegis of the OSCE and the establishment of an “immediate ceasefire” .
Officials of the independentist region of Lugansk report on Monday two civilians killed in bombings by the Ukrainian army, unverifiable accusations from independent sources.
Extraordinary meeting of the OSCE
According to the Élysée, the importance of a ceasefire was also underlined during the Putin-Macron interview. The heads of Russian and French diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov and Jean-Yves Le Drian, are due to meet on Monday, according to Moscow.
An extraordinary meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) devoted to Ukraine is also due to take place on Monday.
Moscow denies any plan to invade Ukraine but demands the promise that the country will never join NATO and an end to the expansion of the Alliance on its borders, all demands rejected by the West until ‘here.
The crisis around Ukraine since late 2021 has caused the worst escalation of tensions Europe has seen since the Cold War.