Washington announced that President Joe Biden called his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky, after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the recognition of the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk.
The White House said Biden’s call lasted 35 minutes.
The British Foreign Office had condemned Russia’s recognition of the two republics, saying that it showed its “blatant disregard” for its obligations in the Minsk agreements and that it “chosen confrontation rather than dialogue.”
“Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recognition of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic as independent states shows a blatant disregard for Russia’s commitments to the Minsk Accords,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement on Twitter on Monday.