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Joe Biden (on New Years Day 2022)
Photo: Carolyn Kaster / AP
Talks at the highest level are planned for the coming week, but the USA and Ukraine have already positioned themselves clearly once again in the conflict with Russia.
US President Joe Biden assured his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelenskyi that he would help.
Biden made it clear that the United States and its allies "will respond resolutely if Russia continues to invade Ukraine," said the White House in Washington on Sunday after a phone call between the two presidents.
Biden and Selenskyi therefore also support diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions with Russia.
US talks with Russia are scheduled for January 9th and 10th in Geneva.
Thereafter, a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council is scheduled - the first in two and a half years.
In addition, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will hold talks afterwards.
Selenskyi announced in the short message service Twitter that he had discussed the "joint actions of Ukraine, the United States and partners to maintain peace in Europe" with Biden, as well as steps towards de-escalation.
According to information from Washington, Biden emphasized that the US is committed to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Selenskyi had only said in his New Year's address that he not only wanted to bring the Crimea Black Sea peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, back to Ukraine.
The parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists should also come back, he said.
USA for Normandy format
According to the White House, Biden underlined that the Minsk peace plan applies to the solution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
He therefore also supported the so-called Normandy format.
Russia had repeatedly criticized Ukraine for repeatedly violating the agreements reached through international mediation.
In the Normandy format of four, France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine are trying to resolve the conflict that has been going on for almost eight years.
According to UN estimates, more than 13,000 people have been killed in Donbass since 2014 in fighting between the Ukrainian government troops and the Russian-backed separatists.
jok / dpa
