The telephone interview between the American president and his Russian counterpart will be the second in less than a month to try to get out of the crisis.
Le Monde with AFP
The US President Joe Biden will propose Thursday, December 30 to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “diplomatic path” to get out of the Ukrainian crisis during a phone call – the second in less than a month – before the talks on security in Europe that will start on January 10th.
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will address “various topics, including the next diplomatic contacts with Russia,” said Wednesday a spokesman for the White House responsible for security issues.
The exchange will take place “late in the evening” on the hour of Moscow, added the Kremlin Dmitri Peskov spokesman. The White House specified on its side that the call will be held at 9:30 pm (French time).
Joe Biden, who will meet with Vladimir Putin since his delaware fief, will be ready to borrow “a diplomatic channel” but the United States, who remain “deeply worried” of the presence of Russian troops at the border With Ukraine, will also be “prepared to answer” in case of invasion, according to a head of the White House. Washington “would like to see the troops [Russians] Return to their usual training areas,” said this source.
Threat of sanctions
Joe Biden continues to consult “his allies and partners” on this subject, said the spokesman of the National Security Council, Emily Horne. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has thus maintained Wednesday with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the one hand, and his French, German and British counterparts on the other.
The Head of American Diplomacy has reaffirmed to Mr. Zelensky “The United States Fault Support for the Independence, Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity of Ukraine against the military strengthening of Russia”, indicated his spokesman Ned Price. Volodymyr Zelensky pointed out in a tweet having received the assurance of a “full American support” to “counter a Russian attack”.
With the French Foreign Ministers Jean-Yves Le Drian, German Annalena Baerbock and British Elizabeth Truss, Antony Blinken then mentioned “the importance of continuous coordination to dissuade any Russian attack against Ukraine” . The four heads of the diplomacy reaffirmed the “consensus” in order to “impose massive consequences and exorbitant costs in Russia” if any.
In a previous telephone interview early December between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, the US president had threatened his sanction counterpart “as he never saw” in case of attack against Ukraine.
“Unacceptable” queries
Moscow, who claims to act only in response to what he describes as Western hostility, recently introduced two draft treaties aimed at preventing any enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ), especially in Ukraine, and to put an end to Western military activities near Russian borders.
This call will take two weeks before negotiations between the two countries planned on January 10 in Geneva on the Treaties of Control of Nuclear Army and the situation at the Russian-Ukrainian border, where Westerners accuse Moscow to massage troops. for possible attack. Sign that the January 10 discussions will be bitter, the head of the Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov has already excluded any “concession”. The United States had previously warned that some Russian queries were “unacceptable”.
These bilateral talks should be followed on January 12 through a meeting between Russia and NATO, followed on 13 January of a meeting between Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), of which the United States, has indicated Monday an American spokesman.
In response to a pro-western revolution, Russia has already attached a part of the Ukrainian territory in 2014, the Crimean Peninsula, a maneuver that had already provoked sanctions against it.