US President Joe Biden assured his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy this Sunday that the US and its allies would “respond vigorously” if Russia invaded Ukraine, the White House said.
In a press release signed by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, it is said that “President Biden has made it clear that the United States and its allies will respond decisively if Russia invades Ukraine.” Biden and Zelenskiy had a phone call this Sunday, as announced Friday.
Joe Biden, who is multiplying warnings to Vladimir Putin and advocating “reducing tensions,” again warned the Russian president against attempting to invade Ukraine during a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin on Thursday. “I made it clear to President Putin that we would adopt tough sanctions and increase our presence in Europe,” Joe Biden said Friday, in coordination with NATO allies.
Regarding the phone call between the presidents of the United States and Ukraine, Jen Psaki also said that Biden has expressed support for diplomatic efforts, including talks scheduled for January 9 and 10 in Geneva, between US and Russian officials. In Kiev, Zelenskiy said he was satisfied with the “unwavering support” of the United States.
The White House said Friday that Joe Biden “will reaffirm US support for Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity.” On the same day, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a message on the social network Twitter that he was eager to discuss with Biden “ways of coordinating” actions in the “interests of peace in Ukraine and security in Europe.”
Kiev and its Western allies accuse Moscow of concentrating tens of thousands of soldiers near its borders in anticipation of a possible invasion. The United States and Russia have scheduled talks on Ukraine for January 10 and 11 in Geneva. It is expected that the delegations of the two countries will be led respectively by Assistant Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabkov.
A bilateral meeting between Russia and NATO is scheduled for January 12, followed by a meeting within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) the next day.
The United States, which is often accused of approaching international issues without taking into account the positions of its Western allies, insists precisely on close cooperation with Europeans and Ukrainians.
More than 100,000 Russian soldiers will be concentrated near the borders of Ukraine, from which Russia already annexed part of the territory, the Crimean Peninsula, in 2014.
Moscow denies any war intentions and claims it is threatened by “provocations” from Kiev and NATO, having submitted proposals in early December demanding that the Atlantic Alliance refuse to recognize Ukraine and other countries in the Soviet zone of influence as members and withdraw its military parts to Central and Eastern Europe.
The West also sees Russia as a mentor for pro-Russian separatists involved in a conflict that has raged in eastern Ukraine for nearly eight years.
