International .
Biden to offer Putin a 'diplomatic path' to get out of Ukraine crisis
The US president and his Russian counterpart are due to speak by phone on Thursday. This will be the second call in less than a month to try to emerge from the crisis.
The exchange will take place "late in the evening" in Moscow time, added Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Mr. Biden, who is in his stronghold of 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 Ukraine, will be also "prepared to respond" in the event of an invasion, according to a White House official. Washington "would like to see [Russian] troops return to their usual training areas," the source said.
The head of American diplomacy thus reaffirmed to Mr. Zelensky "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", explained his spokesperson, Ned Price. Zelensky, meanwhile, tweeted that he had received assurances of "full American support" to "counter a Russian attack."
With the French (Jean-Yves Le Drian), German (Annalena Baerbock) and British (Elizabeth Truss) foreign ministers, Mr. Blinken then spoke of "the importance of continuous coordination in order to deter any Russian attack against Ukraine ”. All reaffirmed the "consensus" to "impose massive consequences and exorbitant costs on Russia" should the case arise.
In a previous telephone interview in early December between MM. Biden and Putin, the US president had threatened his counterpart with sanctions "unlike any other" in the event of an attack on Ukraine.
"Unacceptable" requests
Moscow, which says it is only acting in response to what it describes as Western hostility, recently presented two draft treaties aimed at preventing any expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including to Ukraine, and to put an end to Western military activities near the Russian borders.
The 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. A sign that the talks on January 10 are likely to be bitter, the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, has already ruled out any "concessions". The United States had previously warned that some Russian requests were "unacceptable".
These bilateral talks are expected to be followed on January 12 by a meeting between Russia and NATO, followed the day after by a meeting between Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which includes the United States, an American spokesperson said on Monday.
In response to a pro-Western revolution, Russia annexed part of Ukraine's territory, the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a maneuver that had already provoked sanctions against it.
Threat of sanctions
Mr. Biden continues to consult "his allies and partners" on this subject, said the spokeswoman for the national security council, Emily Horne. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the one hand, and his French, German and British counterparts on the other.