Biden and Putin complete second call-up this month as tensions in Ukraine grow

By Jarrett Renshaw

WILMINGTON, Del. / MOSCOW (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin spoke for nearly an hour on Thursday as tensions over Ukraine rose as leaders turned their backs on the second round of talks this month.

Putin’s call began at 3:35 p.m. (2035 GMT) and ended 50 minutes later, according to U.S. officials.

Both the White House and the Kremlin hope to release summaries of the call soon.

Moscow has distressed the West in the past two months by gathering dozens of soldiers near its border with Ukraine after taking over the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula in 2014 and fighting separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Russia denies any intention to attack Ukraine and says it has the right to move its troops.

Biden and Putin were expected to discuss a number of issues, including a tense European situation, including slow negotiations with Iran https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/russian-envoy- Iran- says its nuclear program because of.

Moscow, concerned about the West’s call for re-arming Ukraine, said it wanted legal guarantees that NATO would not extend further east, and that some weapons of attack would not be extended to Ukraine or other neighboring countries.

Leadership talks come ahead of a US-Russia security meeting on January 10, followed by a January-24 session with Russia and NATO, and a larger conference that will include Moscow, Washington and other European countries.

Concerns have been easing in the United States in recent weeks, according to a senior Biden administration official, despite reports that Russia would withdraw about 10,000 troops from the Ukrainian border over the weekend. Other officials said they had seen little evidence to support Russia’s idea of ​​retreating from the border.

“We are in a time of crisis and we have been recovering from Russia for a few weeks, and it will take a high level of commitment to deal with it and find a way out,” said one US official. officials refused to appoint him.

The Biden administration has told Russian officials that they will take swift economic action against Russia and strengthen NATO in the event of an invasion.

But the US president has pushed for direct diplomacy, including a coup with Putin, as an alternative.

Putin compared current tensions to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis missile crisis. Washington sees some of its demands, including restrictions on NATO expansion, as a trigger.