As long as Russia does not attack Ukraine, the meeting organized by French President Emmanuel Macron will take place. Emmanuel Macron
Russian President Vladimir Putin and United States Vice President Joe Biden have agreed in principle to hold a summit to discuss the Ukraine situation, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday. The discussion will take place as long as Moscow does not invade Ukraine.
The Elysee Palace stated in a statement published early on Monday that Macron had proposed a summit between the two presidents to discuss "security and strategic stability in Europe" during the summit.
As stated in the statement, "Presidents Biden and Putin have both expressed support for the notion of such a summit," while emphasizing that such a meeting would be impossible if Russia attacked Ukraine, as Western nations believe it intends to do.
Later, the White House announced that the planned conference would go place.
In a statement, US Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated that the United States is "committed to pursue diplomacy until the moment an invasion begins." "President Biden has agreed to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in principle if an invasion has not occurred."
"We are also prepared to impose rapid and harsh repercussions on Russia if it chooses to go to war instead." At the moment, Russia looks to be continuing preparations for a full-scale attack on Ukraine, which might take place very soon," she continued.
However, following his phone chat with Macron on Sunday, Vladimir Putin stated that diplomatic efforts must be stepped up in order to find a solution to the problem. There was no immediate response from the Kremlin.
During a meeting scheduled on February 24, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to Macron's office and the White House, will hash out the "substance" of the summit.
The conference, according to Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi, who reported from Washington, DC, looked to be presented as a debate on a new security system for Russia and Western countries in Europe, which is something that Russia has been promoting.
A series of phone discussions between Macron and presidents on both sides of the Atlantic followed, amid rising tensions over the situation in Ukraine, where Russia has massed thousands of troops along the border with Ukraine.
The possibility of a meeting offering optimism for a viable solution to the problem remains a source of concern, particularly after Belarus indicated that Russia will prolong military training in the nation that were scheduled to finish on Sunday. Satellite photos also appeared to show fresh Russian equipment and troops being stationed in fields and woods as close as 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from the Ukrainian border, according to the Russian military.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Blinken stated that the continuation of the drills in Belarus had increased his anxiety that Russia was on the verge of launching an assault.
"Everything we're seeing indicates that this is a really dangerous situation," he said on CNN.
To see whether diplomacy can still prevent President Putin from pursuing this course of action until the tanks are actually rolling and the planes are taking off, we will take use of every chance and every minute we have available to us."
Since Thursday, there has also been a significant upsurge in cross-border violence between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian government forces in eastern Ukraine. According to the Russian news agency RIA, two people were killed in shelling by Ukrainian government forces on Monday in the center of Donetsk, following an explosion heard in the city's center.
Separatist leaders have called for a mass evacuation of citizens to Russia, as well as a complete military mobilization, after Russia's accusation that Ukraine had launched an attack on the country's territory.
Officials from the United States and Ukraine claim that the assaults were manufactured as a pretext for a Russian invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that his country has no ambitions to invade Ukraine, but the situation is prompting considerable worry among Russia's neighbors in Eastern Europe.
"We are seeing a planned, intentional escalation by Russia," claimed Estonian President Alar Karis in a Twitter post. Whatever the conclusion, the message couldn't be any clearer: nothing spoken by the Russian government can, sadly, be relied upon."
Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, expressed skepticism about the summit's likelihood of taking place this year.
"However, if Biden and Putin do meet, they should extend an invitation to [Zelenskyy] to attend," he said on Twitter.
Following a two-hour meeting of his National Security Council on Sunday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden would postpone a scheduled trip to Delaware and would instead remain in Washington, DC.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES
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