In the face of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States “will respond vigorously”. This is the message delivered by US President Joe Biden to his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, according to remarks reported on Sunday by US presidential spokeswoman Jen Psaki. A few days ago, Joe Biden had exchanged about fifty minutes with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the same subject, without moving the positions of the two camps one iota.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday he was impatient to discuss with Joe Biden “the means to coordinate (their) actions in the interest of peace in Ukraine and security in Europe”. After their call on Sunday, he welcomed the “unwavering support” of the United States for Ukraine. “We spoke of the joint actions of Ukraine, the USA and its partners to maintain peace in Europe and avoid a worsening of the situation,” he added on Twitter.
Kiev and its Western allies accuse Moscow of having massed tens of thousands of soldiers on the country’s borders in anticipation of a possible attack. For its part, Russia claims that its security requires the prohibition of any expansion of NATO, perceived as an existential threat, and the end of Western military activities that it claims to observe near Russian borders.
Talks on January 9 and 10
Joe Biden, who multiplies the warnings to Vladimir Putin and pleads for a “de-escalation”, assured to have again warned the Russian president against an attempted invasion of Ukraine during a telephone interview Thursday. “I made it clear to President Putin that we would adopt severe sanctions and that we would increase our presence in Europe, among our NATO allies,” Joe Biden said on Friday. “We have been clear: he cannot, I repeat, he cannot invade Ukraine,” he told reporters in his stronghold of Wilmington, Delaware, where he spends the end of the season. year.
At the end of the call – the second between the two leaders in less than a month – Moscow had argued that Joe Biden had pledged not to deploy “offensive weapons” in Ukraine. Affirmation immediately minimized by the White House, which had assured that it was only a confirmation of the current policy and not “of a new commitment”.
On January 9 and 10, Russia and the United States will hold talks on Ukraine in Geneva. Led by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and her Russian counterpart Sergei Riabkov, they will be followed on January 12 by a Russia-NATO meeting, then on January 13 by a meeting within the framework of the OSCE.