Washington/Moscow.- The President of the United States, Joe Biden told Russian leader Vladimir Putinthat a Russian invasion of Ukraine would provoke a decisive and quick response by the West, during an hour-long telephone conversation.
In the latest effort to avoid hostilities, the two presidents spoke by phone, a day after Washington and its allies warned that Russian forces massed near Ukraine could invade at any moment.
A senior Biden administration official said the conversation was professional and focused, but there had been no fundamental change.
The concentration of Russian forces near Ukraine and increased military activity have fueled fears that Russia may invade the country. Moscow denies such plans.
Biden told Putin that the United States is ready for diplomacy and “other scenarios,” according to the White House.
The senior Biden administration official said the two had a direct conversation that touched on all the issues that the United States has raised in public.
The official added that it remains unclear whether Putin is willing to pursue a diplomatic track.
Early on Saturday, the US State Department ordered most of its embassy staff to leave Ukraine, after asking on Friday that its citizens leave the country within 48 hours.
The Pentagon also reported that it was going to withdraw some 150 military instructors from the country.
More countries have asked their citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately, with Israel, Portugal and Bulgaria joining the list on Saturday.
In another conversation on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron told Putin that candid negotiations were incompatible with an escalation of tension over Ukraine, Paris reported.
Biden and Macron they are scheduled to speak later on Saturday, according to a French presidential official. The official said there was no indication in what Putin told Macron that Russia is preparing an offensive against Ukraine.
Washington had said on Friday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine, likely starting with an airstrike, could happen at any time.
Moscow has repeatedly disputed Washington’s version of events, saying that hconcentrated more than 100,000 troops near the border Ukrainian to maintain its own security against the aggression of NATO allies.
Russia, which has accused Western countries of spreading lies to distract from its own actions, meanwhile said on Saturday that it had decided to “optimize” the number of its diplomatic staff in Ukraine, fearing “provocations” from Kiev and others.
The embassy and its consulates in Ukraine continued to perform their main functions
Aggression or diplomacy
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington would impose swift economic sanctions if Putin decides to invade.
“I continue to hope that he will not choose the path of new aggression and will choose the path of diplomacy and dialogue,” Blinken told reporters after a meeting with Pacific leaders in Fiji. “But if it doesn’t, we’re prepared.”
In a subsequent phone conversation with Blinken, Russian top diplomat Sergei Lavrov accused the United States and its allies of waging a “propaganda campaign” about Russian aggression in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his American counterpart Lloyd Austin also spoke by phone on Saturday, according to the Interfax news agency and the Pentagon.
Also on Saturday, the Russian military said it had used “appropriate means” to steer a US submarine away from Russian waters in the Far East after the ship ignored a Russian request to leave, the news agency reported. Interfax news.
Putin, in his struggle for influence in post-Cold War Europe, is seeking security guarantees from Biden to block Kiev’s entry into NATO and the deployment of missiles near Russian borders.
Washington considers many of the proposals unworkable, but has pressed the Kremlin to discuss them jointly with Washington and its European allies.
