Video summit on the Ukraine conflict: dialogue without concessions

US President Biden and Russian President Putin discussed the conflict in Ukraine. However, there was no approximation. Biden threatened economic sanctions, Putin warned of NATO’s eastward expansion.

US President Joe Biden’s video summit with his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin did not bring any rapprochement in the dispute over the Ukraine conflict. During the two-hour conversation, the US President threatened Putin again with “severe economic sanctions” from the United States and its European allies in the event of a Russian invasion, as Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said. In this case, the US president has also announced that Ukraine will arm itself even further and strengthen its NATO partners on the eastern flank.

At the video summit, Putin reiterated his call to stop NATO’s eastward expansion. Russia wants binding legal guarantees that the Western military alliance will not expand to the east and station offensive weapons there, Putin said, according to a message published by the Kremlin. Sullivan said Biden made no concessions. The president stands by “that countries should be able to choose freely with whom to work together”.

Russia sees itself threatened by an advance of NATO and wants to prevent the admission of the neighboring ex-Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance. Putin had also stated that from Russia’s point of view, moving NATO military infrastructure to Ukraine would be crossing a “red line”.

Keep talking

Putin and Biden had spoken for a good two hours against the background of growing tensions in the Ukraine conflict. The Kremlin announced that the dialogue was objective and open. Sullivan said, “It was a useful meeting.” The conversation enabled Biden to explain the US positions very clearly. The Russian side said they wanted to keep the conversation going.

It was difficult to assume that there could have been a sudden breakthrough, Putin’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov said after the video summit. But both sides have shown their will to continue working on it. Originally, a longer exchange was expected. The Kremlin had previously stated that, given the multitude of conflict issues, it could be a very long conversation.

The US has been accusing Russia of deploying troops not far from the border with Ukraine for weeks. According to this, a Russian invasion of the ex-Soviet republic is feared in the West. Russia rejects this and accuses Ukraine of having deployed more than 120,000 soldiers on the line to the separatist areas.

Biden consults with heads of state

After his conversation with Putin, according to the White House, Biden conferred with outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. It was agreed that it was necessary to continue in dialogue with Russia. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Johnson said that those involved had stressed that Russia must end its threatening behavior towards Ukraine.

The day before, according to the US, the allies had agreed to “stay in close contact with one another in order to develop a coordinated and comprehensive concept in response to Russia’s military rearmament at the Ukrainian borders”.

Who will cross the “red line”?

Sullivan announced that Biden would speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this Thursday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had already spoken to Zelenskyi on the phone before the video summit. According to his ministry, Blinken had reaffirmed the US’s unwavering support for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine “in the face of Russian aggression”.

Even before Biden’s switch with Putin, the US had threatened the government in Moscow with serious consequences in the event of a military escalation in the Ukraine conflict. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said before the interview: “Russia has no plans to attack anyone, but we have our fears and our ‘red lines’.” Last week, Putin said that the relocation of NATO military infrastructure to Ukraine could represent such a “red line” from a Russian point of view.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline could also exert pressure on Russia. That is a leverage of the West, “said Sullivan.” Because if Vladimir Putin wants gas to flow through this pipeline, he may not want to run the risk of invading Ukraine.

Concern in Germany and the EU

The Kremlin chief spoke out in favor of a written end to NATO’s eastward expansion. Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz expressed concern about the Russian troop deployment on the border with Ukraine. There is currently a “very, very serious situation” that can only be defused diplomatically. Security and cooperation in Europe presuppose principles that were negotiated in the policy of détente and that continue to have an effect today, warned Scholz. “This includes the inviolability and inviolability of borders.”

Scholz called on Russia to resolve the crisis through diplomatic means. The future federal government will continue to rely on mediation efforts in the so-called Normandy format with Germany, France, Russia and the Ukraine.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen threatened Moscow with further sanctions. The European Union will rule on further aggression from Moscow, she said. Existing sanction regimes could be expanded or new punitive measures could be taken. She wanted to underline “the unreserved and unshakable support of the EU for Ukraine”. Currently, it is Russia’s conscious choices and aggressive actions that are further destabilizing Europe’s security.

In an interview with the US broadcaster CNN, the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would mean a “really bloody massacre”. Moscow, in turn, demanded a guarantee from Kiev not to attack the areas in Donbass controlled by the pro-Russian separatists. In the event of an attack by Ukraine, Russia’s military doctrine would clearly provide for an invasion – because many Russian citizens also live in Donbass.