Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden held a virtual summit Tuesday in an attempt to defuse tensions on the border between Russia and Ukraine.
The behind-closed-doors talks came after weeks of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington, as a buildup of Russian troops on its border with Ukraine has sparked fears of a return to all-out hostilities between the two sides.
“Greetings, Mr. President,” Putin said in a brief video clip released by the Kremlin. Biden said it was “good to see” his Russian counterpart, adding that he hoped their next session would be in person.
The meeting lasted just over two hours, from 6:08 p.m. to 8:10 p.m. Moscow time, the Russian state-run TASS news agency reported.
Biden “voiced the deep concerns” of the U.S. and its European allies toward “Russia’s escalation of forces surrounding Ukraine” and said Washington and its allies would respond to military escalation with “strong economic and other measures,” the White House said in its readout of the call.
“President Biden reiterated his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and called for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy,” the White House added.
The White House said Biden will call the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy after the summit to follow up on coordinations between the leaders that took place Monday ahead of the Putin talks.
Apart from Ukraine, the White House said the two leaders also discussed bilateral strategic stability plans set in place at their June summit in Geneva, ransomware and joint work on regional issues such as Iran.
The Kremlin has not yet released its readout of the meeting.
Both sides had presented Tuesday’s call as an effort to salvage the tenuous peace between Moscow and Kiev. But the high-stakes talks left little room for maneuver on either side.
Speaking from his residence in Sochi, Putin sought assurances from Biden that Ukraine will not join NATO, and that deepening Kiev’s informal cooperation with the Western military alliance will be halted.
Washington has maintained that no country can block Ukraine’s path to NATO membership.
“Our president is ready to convey his concerns to his American colleague, listen to his concerns and give appropriate explanations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said ahead of the talks Tuesday.
“Russia has never planned to attack anyone,” he said. “But we have our own red lines.”
U.S. intelligence report indicated that around 175,000 Russian soldiers have massed on the Ukrainian frontier, with a possible offensive as soon as late January.
Russia has denied the accusations of military posturing as “hysteria” and maintains it is responding to a Ukrainian buildup and NATO provocations.
Kiev has been locked in a bitter war with pro-Russian separatists in its eastern Donbass region since 2014, when Russia also annexed Crimea from Ukraine. The conflict has claimed over 13,000 lives.
Biden was expected to threaten sanctions that would go far beyond those introduced in response to the annexation of Crimea as well as boosted military support in Eastern Europe, in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to Bloomberg, the sanctions would include fresh restrictions on the Russian ruble, Russian sovereign debt, and some of the country’s largest financial institutions.
The New York Times has reported that cutting off Russia from the SWIFT international payment system is also under discussion if there is an invasion.
