The White House announced on Feb. 20 that President Joe Biden will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin if the country does not invade Ukraine.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet on Feb. 24 and Biden has "accepted in principle" a meeting with Putin after that meeting "if an invasion hasn't taken place," according to a statement released by the White House.
In addition to diplomacy, "we are prepared to place swift and severe consequences on Russia if the latter chooses war And at this point, it appears Russia is preparing to launch a full-scale offensive against Ukraine within days," she said.
“Of course President Biden said yes, but every indication we see on the ground right now, in terms of the disposition of Russian forces, is that they are in fact getting prepared for a major attack on Ukraine,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said Monday on NBC.
Despite repeated American warnings, the Russian military has not yet launched an invasion of Ukraine.
"We do not threaten anyone," he said, adding that the Russian troops are on Russian territory.
According to Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman on Monday, it is "premature" to discuss specific plans for summits.
Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s national security secretary, hailed the apparent progress from a “deadlock” between Putin and Biden but added that “nobody can resolve our issues without us.
21 Feb 2022
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