Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin speak candidly as alarm on Ukraine

President Joe Biden warned Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Thursday that the US could impose new sanctions against Russia if it took further military action against Ukraine, while Putin responded that such a US move would jeopardize relations between nations. can break down completely.

The two leaders spoke candidly for nearly an hour amid growing alarm over Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine, a crisis that has deepened as the Kremlin underscores its demands on border security guarantees and test-based hypersonic missiles. Emphasized.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said further US sanctions “would be a big mistake with dire consequences,” briefed reporters in Moscow after a Biden-Putin phone conversation. He said Putin told Biden that Russia would act as the US if offensive weapons were deployed near US borders.

White House officials offered to keep talks more muted after the call, suggesting that leaders agreed there are areas where both sides can make meaningful progress, but there are also differences that need to be resolved. may be impossible.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “urges Russia to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine” and “clarified that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia attacks Ukraine further.” Is.”

Putin requested a second call between the leaders this month ahead of talks scheduled between senior US and Russian officials on January 9 and 10 in Geneva. The Geneva talks will be followed by the Russia-NATO Council meeting on 12 January and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna on 13 January.

White House officials said Thursday’s call lasted 50 minutes, ending after midnight in Moscow.

According to a senior administration official, Biden told Putin that the two powers now face “two paths”: US resistance through diplomacy or sanctions. Biden said the route taken “will depend on Russia’s actions in the times to come,” according to the official briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.

Russia has made clear that it wants a written commitment that Ukraine will never be allowed to join NATO and that the coalition’s military equipment will not be deployed in former Soviet states, demands that the Biden administration rejected. Have given.

Biden told Putin that a diplomatic path is open, even as Russians have moved an estimated 100,000 troops toward Ukraine and Kremlin officials have increased volumes on their demands for new guarantees from the US and NATO.

White House officials said Biden made it clear that the US is prepared for substantial economic pain through sanctions if Putin decides to take military action in Ukraine.

Putin reacted strongly.

He “noted that it would be a mistake that our ancestors saw as a grave error. A lot of mistakes have been made in the past 30 years, and we are better off avoiding more such mistakes in this situation,” Ushakov said. said.

Russia’s demands are to be discussed during talks in Geneva, but it is unclear what Biden would be willing to offer Putin in return for easing the crisis.

Draft security document Moscow demanded that NATO deny membership of Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and withdraw military deployments to Central and Eastern Europe.

The US and its allies have refused to give Russia the kind of guarantees Putin wants on Ukraine, citing NATO’s principle that membership is open to any eligible country. However, they agreed to hold talks with Russia to discuss its concerns.

Moscow’s security proposal has raised questions about whether Putin is making unrealistic demands in the hope of Western disapproval that would give him an excuse to invade.

Steven Pfeiffer, who served as the US ambassador to Ukraine in the Clinton administration, said the Biden administration could engage on some elements of Russia’s draft document if Moscow is serious about talks.

Meanwhile, key NATO members have made it clear that there is no appetite for an expansion of the alliance in the near future. The US and allies may also be receptive to the language in Russia’s draft document calling for establishing new advisory mechanisms such as the NATO-Russia Council and a hotline between NATO and Russia.

“The proposed ban of the draft treaty on any NATO military activity in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, or Central Asia is an overreach, but some measures to limit military exercises and activities on a reciprocal basis may be possible,” said Pifer, who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote in an analysis for the Washington think tank.

Biden and Putin are not expected to attend January talks, meeting in Geneva in June to discuss a range of tensions in US-Russia relations.

Last week, Russia tested Zircon hypersonic missiles, a move Russian officials said was to help make Russia’s push for security guarantees “more concrete”. The test was the first time Zircon missiles were launched in a salvo, marking the completion of tests before the new missile entered into force with the Russian Navy next year and armamented its cruisers, frigates and submarines.

Earlier this month US intelligence determined that Russian plans were underway for a possible military offensive that could begin as early as 2022, but Putin was yet to determine whether to proceed with it.

Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council secretary Oleksey Danilov said on Thursday that his country believes there is no immediate threat of a major Russian offensive.

“Our experts say that the Russian Federation cannot just physically launch a major invasion of our territory,” Danilov said. “The time required for preparation is the duration.”

According to Chuck Pritchard, a spokesman for the US European Command, the US military has carried out surveillance flights over Ukrainian airspace this week, including Thursday’s flight by the Air Force’s E-8C JSTARS aircraft. That aircraft is equipped to provide intelligence on ground forces.

Russia has denied any intention to launch an invasion and, in turn, accused Ukraine of planning to try to gain control of areas occupied by force by Moscow-backed rebels. Ukraine has rejected the claim.

At the same time, Putin has warned that Moscow will have to take “substantial military-technical measures” if the West continues its “aggressive” course “on the threshold of our home”.

Last month, Putin expressed concern that NATO could potentially use Ukrainian territory to deploy missiles that would be able to reach Moscow in just five minutes and said Zircon would give Russia a comparable capability.

As Biden prepared for talks with Putin, the administration sought to highlight its commitment to Ukraine and drive home that Washington would be “anything about you without you” in shaping policy affecting European allies. Committed to the “Principle of No”. Foreign Minister Antony Blinken spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday.

Past military incursions by Putin are massive.

In 2014, Russian troops marched into Crimea’s Black Sea peninsula and seized territory from Ukraine. Russia’s annexation of Crimea was one of the darkest moments for President Barack Obama on the international stage.

After Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili ordered his troops into the breakaway region of South Ossetia, President George W. US-Russia relations were badly damaged near the end of the Bush administration.

Biden, who was spending weeks in his home state of Delaware, spoke to Putin from his home near Wilmington. The White House distributed a photo of the president talking to the Russian leader from a desk, along with family photos.

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