Biden-Putin summit planned on Ukraine crisis
Created: 02/21/2022 04:58
US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters about the Ukraine conflict outside the White House.
© Lenin Nolly/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
The United States and NATO are certain: a Russian invasion of Ukraine is almost a done deal.
Russia disagrees.
Now French President Macron is raising hopes of a last-minute solution.
Washington – There is movement in the deadlocked conflict with Russia: A summit meeting between US President Joe Biden and Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is planned to de-escalate.
French President Emmanuel Macron proposed such a meeting to the two on Sunday and then another with everyone involved, according to the Élysée Palace in Paris.
US President Biden has “in principle” agreed to a meeting with Putin, the White House said.
The condition, however, is that Russia does not invade Ukraine beforehand.
USA: "Always ready for diplomacy"
The French leader spoke to both Biden and President Putin twice on the phone.
The content of the summit is to be determined by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian colleague Sergey Lavrov at a meeting on Thursday.
"We are always ready for diplomacy," the White House said.
The US government again threatened Moscow with sanctions in the event of an invasion.
It said it was prepared to impose swift and severe consequences if Russia chose war.
At present, Russia seems to be continuing preparations for a full-scale and early attack on the neighboring country.
Despite the deployment of around 150,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine, Russia has rejected Western fears.
"There is no invasion, and there are no such plans," Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov told CBS.
Rather, his country wants to continue diplomatic efforts.
NATO, on the other hand, is skeptical about Russia's behavior.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia had promised to withdraw troops from the border region but was increasing them.
It is not too late for Russia to change course, but the risk of an attack is increasing, he said in the ARD report from Berlin.
According to media reports, the US government has received intelligence information that Moscow is said to have ordered its military to proceed with invasion plans.
This information from last week is said to have prompted President Joe Biden to state that Russian President Vladimir Putin made the decision to attack, the New York Times and CBS reported.
However, the order does not mean that an invasion is certain, as Putin can still change his mind.
Violations of the Armistice
According to the Kremlin, Macron and Putin also agreed that in view of the flare-up of violence in eastern Ukraine, the search for solutions should be intensified - including in the so-called Normandy format with representatives of Russia and Ukraine under Franco-German moderation.
The aim is for the ceasefire to be observed again in eastern Ukraine and for progress to be made in resolving the conflict.
In eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army and Moscow-backed separatists have been at odds since 2014.
According to UN estimates, more than 14,000 people have already been killed, mostly in the separatist area.
A peace plan from 2015 mediated by Franco-German mediation is not implemented.
There have recently been increasing violations of the ceasefire along the front.
In the west, there are fears that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin could use the fighting as a pretext for an invasion of the neighboring country.
According to US information, Russia has gathered around 150,000 soldiers at the border.
However, Moscow has been denying plans of attack for weeks.
In a letter available to the German Press Agency, the US government wrote to UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet that it feared human rights violations in the event of a Russian invasion.
"I would like to draw your attention to disturbing information that the United States has recently received," the letter said.
The US warns against targeted killings, kidnappings, unjustified imprisonment and the use of torture.
These actions would target those who opposed Russian actions, journalists and activists, as well as vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic groups or the LGBTQI+ community.
The abbreviation stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, inter and queer people and the plus sign as a placeholder for other identities.
Russia against NATO expansion
Meanwhile, Russia is demanding legally binding guarantees from the West for its security.
The Russian ambassador to the US said the Western military alliance was not a "peace-loving NGO".
"We don't want the next wave of NATO expansion to take place," Antonov said, referring to Ukraine's efforts to join the alliance.
The foreign ministers of the EU states are discussing the Ukraine conflict this Monday in Brussels.
The increasing number of ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine are of particular concern.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is also expected to have breakfast together.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will represent Germany.
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The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has also called a special session for this Monday.
The OSCE has long tried to mediate in the conflict.
So far, however, Russia has strictly rejected this and recently stopped attending a number of meetings.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, appealed to the federal government to supply his country with defensive weapons after all.
He said on "Bild" TV that if Germany continues to refuse and Putin actually invades Ukraine in the next few days or weeks, this would be a "failure of German foreign policy".
dpa