US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a video call on Tuesday to discuss the military tensions and buildup...
US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a video call on Tuesday to discuss the military tensions and buildup at Ukraine's border, the White House confirmed on Saturday.
'President Biden will underscore US concerns with Russian military activities on the border with Ukraine and reaffirm the United States’ support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,' a statement by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki read.
Biden also wants to discuss the US' concerns about strategic stability, cyber and regional issues, according to the statement.
'We're aware of Russia's actions for a long time and my expectation is we're going to have a long discussion with Putin,' Biden told reporters on Friday as he departed for a weekend trip to Camp David. 'I don't accept anybody's red lines,' he said.
The exact timing of the call was not disclosed.
'The conversation will indeed take place on Tuesday,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters. 'Bilateral relations, of course Ukraine and the realization of the agreements reached in Geneva are the main [items] on the agenda,' he said.
Biden and Putin will also talk about bilateral ties and the implementation of agreements reached at their Geneva summit in June, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
DailyMail.com reached out to the White House.
In a statement Saturday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed plans that US President and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a video call on Tuesday to discuss the military tensions and buildup at Ukraine's border
President Joe Biden (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) are planning to meet via video conference on Tuesday to discuss the growing tensions near Ukraine's border. Russia is apparently building up troops along the border - which it denies. Biden wants to reaffirm the US' support of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity
More than 94,000 Russian troops are massed near Ukraine's borders. Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Friday that Moscow may be planning a large-scale military offensive for the end of January, citing intelligence reports.
Putin could intend to deploy 175,000 troops to invade Ukraine.
Pictures also show Russian military drills underway in regions close to Ukraine, including Voronezh and Belgorod.
A report said: 'Servicemen of the [Vistula] division's tank and motorized rifle units, as well as logistics specialists, were the first to begin the field exercises.'
The drills 'will soon be joined by the liaison, air defense, radiation, chemical and biological defense units and military engineers.'
Sniper drills involving 700-plus military shooters are underway in four regions in striking distance of Ukraine while separately Moscow warned Western navies to stay out of Arctic waters close to Russia, accusing NATO of 'provocative' activity in a vast region where Kremlin war games are now underway.
This came as the Washington Post claimed US intelligence believes the Kremlin is planning a multi-front offensive against Ukraine in the early part of next year.
A Biden administration official was cited as saying: 'The Russian plans call for a military offensive against Ukraine as soon as early 2022 with a scale of forces twice what we saw this past spring during Russia's snap exercise near Ukraine's borders.'
Ukraine soldiers have been building up troops near the border in preparation for a Russian attack
Russian military have been conducting training exercises in the arctic as tensions escalate with Ukraine, which has left the US and European allies concerned
Fears are growing of an imminent conflict in eastern Europe as Russia and Belarus carry out snap military drills close to where a migrant crisis is playing out on Poland's border, while Washington warns Putin is preparing to invade eastern Ukraine
The plans 'involve extensive movement of 100 battalion tactical groups with an estimated 175,000 personnel, along with armor, artillery and equipment,' said the unnamed official.
An unclassified US intelligence document reportedly obtained by The Post includes satellite photos and shows Russian forces massing in four locations.
Some 50 battlefield tactical groups are deployed along with 'newly arrived' tanks and weaponry, the document alleged.
Biden said on Friday that he intends 'to make it very, very difficult for Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he may do.'
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week: 'We don't know whether President Putin has made the decision to invade.
'We do know that he is putting in place the capacity to do so on short order should he so decide.'
Russia has accused the West of whipping up tension over Ukraine.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: 'It is their tactic. It has been their strategy for decades.
'They create a situation of tension, a situation of controlled chaos but sometimes they lose control of the chaos they create to lobby their interests.'
Russia has made clear its 'red lines' include the deployment of Western strike weapons in Ukraine, and the ex-Soviet state being made a NATO member.
More than 94,000 Russian troops are massed near Ukraine's borders (pictured: Ukraine soldiers)
Russian troops training in December 2021
Deputy speaker of the Russian senate, Konstantin Kosachev, said Moscow had the right to take measures prepare for the outbreak of conflict in separatist areas of Ukraine.
'We have no plans to attack Ukraine,' he said.
'We have no heightened military activity at the Ukrainian borders. There is no preparation for an offensive operation.'
He claimed that Kyiv may launch a 'provocation' or military escalation with the 'full information and maybe military support' from the West.
'This scenario is quite probable and quite predictable, and we are ready for it,' he said.
A close Putin aide, Yuri Ushakov, also dismissed suggestions that the Kremlin was escalating tensions but insisted Moscow had the right to move troops on its own territory.
'There is no escalation. We have the right to move troops on our territory, but there is no talk of any kind of escalation at all,' he claimed.
The US president said on Friday he and his advisers are preparing a comprehensive set of initiatives aimed at deterring Putin from an invasion. He did not give further details, but the Biden administration has discussed partnering with European allies to impose more sanctions on Russia.
Moscow accuses Kyiv of pursuing its own military build-up. It has dismissed as inflammatory suggestions that it is preparing for an attack on its southern neighbor and has defended its right to deploy troops on its own territory as it sees fit.
US officials say they do not know yet what Putin's intentions are, adding while intelligence points to preparations for a possible invasion of Ukraine, it is unclear whether a final decision to do so has been made.
US-Russia relations have been deteriorating for years, notably with Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, its 2015 intervention in Syria and US intelligence charges of meddling in the 2016 election won by now-former President Donald Trump.
But they have become more volatile in recent months.
The Biden administration has asked Moscow to crack down on ransomware and cyber crime attacks emanating from Russian soil, and in November charged a Ukraine national and a Russian in one of the worst ransomware attacks against American targets.
Russia has repeatedly denied carrying out or tolerating cyber attacks.
The two leaders have had one face-to-face meeting since Biden took office in January, sitting down for talks in Geneva last June. They last talked by phone on July 9. Biden relishes direct talks with world leaders, seeing them as a way to lower tensions.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Stockholm earlier this week that the United States and its European allies would impose 'severe costs and consequences on Russia if it takes further aggressive action against Ukraine.'
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