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Ukraine Crisis: Biden Agrees 'In Principle' to Summit with Putin


Mon 21 Feb 2022 | 10:05 AM
NaDa Mustafa

US President Joe Biden agreed 'in principle' to hold a summit with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, as long as Russia does not further invade Ukraine, the White House announced on Monday.

In a statement, the White House stressed that Washington is ready to impose serious sanctions on Moscow if it chooses war.

“Russia appears to be continuing preparations for an imminent full-scale assault on Ukraine,” the statement read.

Moreover, the White House pointed out that the US President will participate on Thursday in a virtual meeting with G7 leaders on the Ukraine-Russia crisis.

The proposal was announced by the French presidency after two phone calls between President Emmanuel Macron and Putin, which went on for almost three hours in total.

It is worth mentioning that Kamala Harris, the US Vice President, warned on Saturday that the US, its allies, and partners, would impose significant financial penalties against Russia if it invades Ukraine.

"Let me be clear, I can say with absolute certainty if Russia further invades Ukraine, the United States, together with our Allies and partners, will impose significant and unprecedented economic costs," Harris said.

The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Alexei Danilov, stated that Kyiv sees no evidence that Russia is preparing for a "large-scale attack" on Ukrainian territory.

“If we are talking about a large-scale operation against our state, we do not see anything like this,” Danilov said in an interview with Ukraine’s “1+1” channel.

He added that Ukraine had detected “provocations from the Russian side” in the Donbas region.

Danilov added that the Ukrainian side should "maintain restraint" and that the Ukrainian army was fully prepared for this.

Earlier, the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said that the United States has not seen any sign of the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine’s borders and that Moscow has been moving critical units closer to the area.

Russia said more of its forces surrounding Ukraine were withdrawing on Wednesday, but NATO said the troop buildup was continuing, questioning Moscow’s stated willingness to negotiate a solution to the crisis.

“There’s what Russia says and then there’s what Russia does. And we haven’t seen any pullback of its forces,” Blinken told MSNBC. “We continue to see critical units moving toward the border, not away from the border.”