Biden spoke about this during a conversation with reporters in Delaware on December 31, transcript of the conversation publishes White House website.
“I made it clear to President Putin that if he takes any more steps and invades Ukraine, we will impose tough sanctions. We will increase our presence in Europe with our NATO allies and he will have to pay a high price,” Biden said.
The head of the White House was asked if the likelihood of a Russian invasion of Ukraine has diminished since the December 30 conversation.
Biden said he had the impression that Putin agreed that the United States and Russia would hold three major meetings in Europe starting in mid-January with senior officials related to the OSCE, the Russia-NATO Council, and continuation of consultations on the strategic doctrine of relations between the two countries.
“So he didn’t disagree with any of this. He laid out some of his views on NATO, the United States and Europe, and we laid out ours. And we said we would start negotiations on some of those issues. But I made it clear that they can only take place if he de-escalates and does not escalate the situation in the region, “Biden added.
He hopes to make progress in the negotiations, but did not answer the question of whether Russia would face sanctions if troops remained at the Ukrainian-Russian border.
“I am not going to negotiate in public, but we have made it clear that [Путин] cannot – I emphasize: cannot – move across Ukraine, “the US President said.
In the spring of 2021, Russia built up troops near the border with Ukraine and in the occupied Crimea. In late October, American media began reporting that Russia pulls up troops again to the border with Ukraine. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said on December 22 that in the zone 200 km from the country’s border there are 122 thousand Russian military… The United States and NATO have repeatedly called on Russia to de-escalation of stress at the border.
On December 30, Biden during a telephone conversation with the President of the Russian Federation in a closed mode for the press, who lasted about 50 minutes, warned Putin that the United States, its allies and partners will give decisive response in the event of an invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine.
These were the second talks between Biden and Putin over the past month, they took place against the background of information about the continued pulling of Russian troops to the Russian-Ukrainian border and preparations for a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. The first ones took place on December 7: Biden expressed to Putin the deep concern of the United States and its European allies in connection with the buildup of forces by Russia around Ukraine, reaffirmed his support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and called for de-escalation and return to diplomacy.
The Kremlin said that the “dominant place” in the online talks between Putin and Biden took the topic of Donbass and implementation of the Minsk agreements.
Security talks between the United States and the Russian Federation will take place in January in Geneva, Switzerland. Biden and Putin will not participate in them. The negotiations will take place after Moscow handed over Russian drafts of the treaty to Washington with the United States and agreements with NATO on so-called security guarantees. In particular, they say that the United States must commit to exclude further NATO expansion “eastward”, refuse to admit the states that were formerly part of the USSR into the Alliance.
The White House said that it was familiar with the Russian draft agreements, stressing that the United States will not negotiate with the Russian Federation on “security guarantees” without allies in Europe.
December 29, the day before telephone conversation Biden and Putin, a conversation took place between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The parties, in particular, discussed upcoming negotiations between the United States and Russia for safety.
January 2 Zelensky’s talks with Biden are scheduled.
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