February 21, 2022 07:48 GMT – By RFE/RL
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden has tentatively agreed to a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days as he seeks to deter the Kremlin leader from invading Ukraine.
Biden would meet Putin after February 24 talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “if an invasion hasn’t happened,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a February 20 statement.
The idea of a bilateral meeting was proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke separately to both leaders earlier in the day.
No specific date or location has been announced for the summit. Biden and Putin met for the first time as the respective heads of their nations in June in Geneva. That summit was prompted by a smaller Russian military buildup near Ukraine in the spring.
Prior to the summit, Biden will participate in a virtual meeting with his counterparts from the Group of Seven (G7) on February 24 to discuss the crisis provoked by Russia’s troop buildup. The G7 includes the United States, Britian, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, and Japan.
In a statement on February 21, the Kremlin said Putin and Macron agreed in two weekend phone calls that there’s a need to continue dialogue on Ukraine, according to Interax.
Biden said February 18 that he was “convinced” that Putin had made a decision to invade Ukraine and that it could happen in the coming days. Biden said the United States and European allies would impose severe sanctions on Russia if Putin went ahead with the attack.
Russia currently has more than 150,000 combat-ready troops surrounding Ukraine.
Moscow further angered Ukraine and the West when it broke a pledge to return its troops to their bases when a military exercise in Belarus ended, instead extending the drills past the February 20 scheduled finish.
Belarus said the troops would return to their bases “when there is an objective need to do so” and would depend on when NATO forces pulled away from near the borders of Belarus and Russia.
The Kremlin is seeking to prevent Ukraine from someday joining NATO and pull the country firmly back into its sphere of influence.
Russia has repeatedly denied it intends to invade Ukraine and claimed to have begun pulling back some forces. The United States and NATO have said they see no signs of a partial pullback.
In the February 20 statement, Psaki reiterated the dire message, saying that “Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon.”
Germany had tough words for Russia, with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on February 21 accusing of playing an “irresponsible” game with the civilian population of eastern Ukraine, putting their lives at risk.
“I urgently call on the Russian government, on the Russian president: Don’t play with human lives,” she told reporters as she arrived in Brussels for a summit of EU foreign ministers.
She said that Moscow has started the current crisis and it is up to Moscow to help solve it.
The United States has warned in recent weeks that Russia could use a “false flag” operation in eastern Ukraine to justify an invasion of the country.
Russia-backed separatists have been fighting government forces in two provinces in eastern Ukraine for nearly eight years.
While the two sides have agreed to multiple cease-fires, European monitors have registered a surge in shelling over the past few days in eastern Ukraine that Western officials blame on the separatists.
Putin has blamed Ukraine for the increase in fighting, raising concerns he could use it as an excuse to invade.
With reporing by AP and Reuters
https://www.rferl.org/a/biden-agrees-meet-putin-invasion/31713902.html
Why the meeting? There is nothing to discuss, how many times does Putler need telling, no? It’s time to stop pussyfooting around, slap the fucking sanctions on, then tell the dwarf bastard should him or his puppets in Donbas fire one more round into Ukraine, the sanctions will be increased to destruction level.
They could have held the sanctions back if they had anything else to bargain with. Now, thanks to Biden, they haven’t.
If three divisions of Budapest memorandum troops had been sent into Ukraine, with air and sea support, the crisis would have ended.
There is one thing they can do now, but it seems not even to be under discussion: ban on all commercial flights between Russia, the US and UK. Obviously, almost all other countries wouldn’t comply. Canada, Poland and Pribaltika might.
Biden just doesn’t get it. He agrees to a summit with Putin which regardless of the outcome Putin wins. If nothing happens Putin says I tried and therefore attacks, if something happens he says I won, therefore threatening the West yields results, meaning he and others will do it again!!!
It’s so frustrating. I swear if one person dies in Ukraine, I lay it on Bidens door as he has caused all of this. The beginning right to where we are now.
God what is wrong with that idiot!!!