On December 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joseph Biden had two-hour talks. The main topic was Ukraine. Russian media and the White House press service have already reported the first details of the talks, according to Segodnya.
Ultimatum for the sake of de-escalation
Joseph Biden threatened Vladimir Putin with "serious economic sanctions" against Russia if there is an invasion of Ukraine.
US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said this during a briefing after the talks. According to her, Biden also issued an ultimatum: The U.S. will respond positively to requests to expand its military presence in eastern Europe if Russia shows aggression. This includes the eastern flank of NATO.
In such a case, Ukraine will receive more military aid. As noted by Nuland, the U.S. is already intensively interacting with Zelensky and the Ukrainian government to strengthen the defense of Ukraine.
In addition, Biden also told Putin about plans to disconnect Russia from the global financial system, suspend Nord Stream 2 and prepare still "active, clear responses" to possible Russian military aggression in Ukraine.
The White House added that restrictions against Moscow are also being discussed with European Union leaders. At the same time, the U.S. said that it still does not officially believe that the Russian leadership made the decision to attack Ukraine. The Kremlin said that Vladimir Putin refused to admit responsibility for inflaming the situation around the Russian military presence near Ukraine's borders.
Russia also answered whether Putin had promised in his conversation with Biden not to send troops into Ukraine.
"There wasn't even any talk about that. How do you send troops into Ukraine? What is this? An invasion or what is that? There was no talk of that at all," said Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian president, Russian media reported.
Negotiations and the Minsk agreements
Getting back to negotiations is one of Biden's demands for the Kremlin, the White House said.
The U.S. president demanded de-escalation, the withdrawal of Russian troops from the border with Ukraine, and the start of a settlement through diplomacy. According to Biden, the U.S. and Russia are capable of "de-escalating tensions" in the Ukrainian issue through diplomacy.
The message from the White House about the readiness "to support a settlement in Donbas within the framework of the Minsk process" deserves special attention. The statement was made with a caveat, "if the parties would welcome it.
For his part, Vladimir Putin tried to convince the United States of Kiev's alleged "provocative actions against Donbass. According to Russian media reports, the Kremlin host "illustrated Kiev's destructive line aimed at the complete dismantling of the Minsk agreements.
Ukraine and NATO membership
"No one has the right to dictate to NATO who should be admitted to the Alliance," was the stance with which Biden remained in talks with Putin, the White House claimed.
The U.S. president also made no commitment to Ukraine's non-aligned status. At the same time, during the briefing of the US presidential administration, there were no statements about the prospect of Ukraine's membership in NATO. But the Russian president did complain about Kiev's cooperation with the North Atlantic Alliance.
"Putin stressed that NATO is making dangerous attempts to develop Ukrainian territory and told Biden that Russia is seriously interested in getting reliable guarantees that exclude NATO's eastward expansion," the Russian news agency TASS reported.
The Kremlin assured that Biden promised to talk to his NATO colleagues about Russia's concerns about the Alliance's expansion. At the same time, first aide to Russian President Yuri Ushakov did not mention any guarantees about NATO's actions on the eastern flank or assurances to provide them.
Putin's complaints about Ukraine
Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian president, said that Putin complained to Biden about the "oppression of the Russian language" by the authorities in Ukraine. He also talked about one of the Ukrainian draft laws - "On the state policy of the transition period".
Putin said that this document "leads to Kiev's complete withdrawal from Minsk-2. There were also talks about the notorious "red lines," which Putin had previously mentioned. The Russian side called the deployment of offensive weapons in Ukraine with the support of the West unacceptable for itself, among other things.
