US President Joe Biden has agreed “in principle” to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the crisis over Ukraine. The talks proposed by France will only take place if Russia does not invade its neighbour, the White House said, according to BBC News.
The meeting could offer a possible diplomatic solution to one of the worst security crises in Europe in decades.
The proposal was announced by the French presidency after two phone calls between President Emmanuel Macron and Putin, which went on for almost three hours in total.
The second exchange happened in the early hours of Monday Moscow time, and followed a 15-minute conversation Macron had with Biden.
Macron’s office said details of the possible summit would be discussed during a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday.
In a statement that confirmed the proposal, the White House also said Russia appeared to be “continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon”, and that the US was ready to impose “swift and severe consequences” should it happen.
Russia has massed more than 150,000 troops close to Ukraine’s borders, according to US estimates.
US company Maxar said new satellite imagery showed multiple new field deployments of armoured equipment and troops from Russian garrisons near the border with Ukraine, indicating increased military readiness.
Putin agreed on the need to “prioritise a diplomatic solution” to the crisis, according to the French presidency. It said intense work would be carried out to enable a meeting in the next few hours aiming for a ceasefire.
The Kremlin said Putin blamed the Ukrainian military for the escalation of tensions. Ukraine has rejected this, saying Moscow is engaged in a provocation campaign aimed at creating a pretext for an intervention.
However, the French presidency said both leaders agreed to resume talks through the Normandy Format, a group created to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine that includes Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Putin’s commitments to Macron were a welcome sign he might still “engage in finding a diplomatic solution”. But Johnson called on Putin to step back from his current threats and withdraw troops from Ukraine’s border.
Earlier, Russia announced the extension of military drills in Belarus, where 30,000 Russian troops are deployed, that were due to end on Sunday. A Belarusian statement blamed the “deterioration of the situation” in eastern Ukraine as one reason for extending the exercises.