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The Kremlin says the president will hold talks with Russia after gathering tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border.
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak at a video conference as tensions between the US and Russia escalate as a result of a build-up of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border as a sign of a possible invasion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed his intentions to the Russian state agency RIA Novosti on Saturday, and said it would be on Tuesday evening. Peskov added that “the president will decide for himself” how long the talks will last.
The White House did not comment on the immediate announcement.
Russia is stronger than ever because the US guarantees that Ukraine will not join the NATO military alliance.
U.S. intelligence officials say Russia has gathered about 70,000 troops near its border with Ukraine and has begun planning a possible invasion early next year, according to a Biden administration official who was not allowed to discuss the discovery. he spoke publicly and on condition of anonymity.
The risk of such an invasion by Putin would be enormous.
U.S. officials and former U.S. diplomats say that while the Russian president is laying the groundwork for a potential invasion, the Ukrainian military is better armed and prepared today than in the past, and Western-threatened sanctions would do serious damage to the Russian economy.
“What I’m doing is what I think is going to be to bring together the broadest and most significant set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to do what people are concerned about,” Biden said. he said on Friday.
Ukrainian authorities have said Russia could invade it next month. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said the number of Crimean soldiers near Ukraine and attached to Russia was 94,300, and warned that a “large-scale escalation” was possible in January.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has recently complained that a group of Russians and Ukrainians were trying to stage a coup in his country and that the conspirators tried to seek the help of Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.
Russia and Akhmetov have denied any wrongdoing, but the Russians have become more explicit in their recent warnings against Ukraine and the United States.
The Biden-Zelenskyy call is expected
Bidenek is also scheduled to speak to Zelenskyy next week.
The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin, in a call with Biden, would seek binding guarantees to prevent NATO from expanding into Ukraine. In a comment to reporters on Friday, Biden tried to address the request before spending the weekend at Camp David.
“I don’t support anyone’s red line,” Biden said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration would coordinate with European allies if sanctions were to move forward. Russia referred to the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Black Sea Peninsula, which had been under Ukrainian control since 1954.
Russia has also backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in a seven-year conflict that has claimed more than 14,000 lives.
“We know what President Putin has done in the past,” Psaki said. “We see that it is putting in place the ability to take action in the short term.”
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