Ukraine: Presidents Biden and Putin will discuss a way out of diplomatic crisis

Published on : 12/30/2021 – 07:40

Towards an end to the diplomatic crisis in Ukraine? In any case, this is what US President Joe Biden intends to offer, Thursday, December 30, to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Poutine. A “diplomatic channel” out of the Ukrainian crisis in a phone call – the second in less than a month – before talks on security in Europe which begin on January 10.

Joe Biden and Vladimir Poutine will discuss “various subjects, including the next diplomatic contacts with Russia”, announced Wednesday a spokesperson of the White House in charge of the questions of security.

The exchange will take place “late in the evening” at Moscow time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added. The White House said for its part that the call will be held at 8:30 p.m. GMT.

Return of Russian troops to their base

Joe Biden, who will meet with Vladimir Putin from his stronghold in Delaware, will be ready to take “a diplomatic route”, but the United States, which remains “deeply concerned” about the presence of Russian troops on the border with the United States. Ukraine will also be “prepared to respond” to an invasion, according to a White House official. Washington “would like to see (Russian) troops return to their usual training areas,” the source said.

Joe Biden continues to consult “his allies and partners” on this subject, said the spokesperson for the National Security Council, Emily Horne. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the one hand, and his French, German and British counterparts on the other.

The head of American diplomacy thus reaffirmed in Minsk “the unwavering support of the United States for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine in the face of the military strengthening of Russia,” said his spokesperson. lyrics by Ned Price.

Volodymyr Zelensky for his part underlined in a tweet that he had received the assurance of “full American support” to “counter a Russian attack”.

With the French Foreign Ministers Jean-Yves Le Drian, German Annalena Baerbock and British Elizabeth Truss, Antony Blinken then spoke of “the importance of continuous coordination in order to deter any Russian attack against Ukraine”.

The four foreign ministers reaffirmed the “consensus” to “impose massive consequences and exorbitant costs on Russia” where appropriate.

No concession on the Russian side

In a previous telephone conversation at the beginning of December between Joe Biden and Vladimir Poutine, the American president threatened his counterpart with sanctions “as he has never seen” in the event of an attack against Ukraine.

Moscow, which claims to act only in reaction to what it describes as Western hostility, recently presented two draft treaties aimed at preventing any NATO expansion, including Ukraine, and ending Western military activities near Russian borders.

This call will come two weeks before negotiations between the two countries, scheduled for January 10 in Geneva, on nuclear arms control treaties and the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border, where the West accuse Moscow of massing troops in view of a possible attack.

Delicate negotiations

Sign that the discussions of January 10 will be bitter, the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov has already ruled out any “concession”. The United States had previously warned that some Russian requests were “unacceptable”.

These bilateral talks should be followed on January 12 by a meeting between Russia and NATO, followed on January 13 by a meeting between Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), of which is a member. the United States, a US spokesperson said on Monday.

In reaction to a pro-Western revolution, Russia already annexed in 2014 part of Ukraine’s territory, the Crimean peninsula, a maneuver which had already provoked sanctions against it.

With AFP