Zelensky mentioned in a tweet Sunday night that the decision with Biden underscored “the particular nature of our relationships.” He added, “Joint actions of Ukraine, United States and companions in retaining peace in Europe, stopping additional escalation, reforms, deoligarchization had been mentioned.”As many as 100,000 Russian troops have remained amassed on the Ukrainian border, regardless of warnings from Biden and European leaders of great penalties ought to Putin transfer forward with an invasion. And US intelligence findings have estimated that Russia might start a army offensive in Ukraine “as quickly as early 2022.”
Biden mentioned Friday he had made it clear in his name with Putin that there will probably be a “heavy value to pay” if Russia invades Ukraine and threatened heavy financial sanctions. Putin had informed Biden that introducing a brand new spherical of sanctions towards Russia would quantity to a “colossal mistake” that would lead to a whole breakdown of relations between the 2 nations, a Kremlin aide mentioned.
Russia has been demanding safety ensures from the US and NATO, together with a binding pledge that NATO will not develop additional east and won’t enable Ukraine to hitch the army alliance. Biden, nevertheless, has signaled that the US won’t make any concessions on both NATO or Ukraine’s future.
“We made it clear to President Putin that if he makes any extra strikes, goes into Ukraine, we may have extreme sanctions. We will improve our presence in Europe with our NATO allies, and it will simply be a heavy value to pay for it,” the President mentioned after a New Year’s Eve lunch in Wilmington, Delaware.
Biden mentioned that Putin has agreed to 3 upcoming conferences in Europe, together with US-Russia diplomatic talks led by US deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on January 10 in Geneva and Russia-NATO talks on January 12.
This story has been up to date with further data Sunday.
CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed to this report.