Putin and Putin meet amid tensions over Kremlin’s military moves on border with Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US President Joe Biden They are expected to hold a virtual summit on Tuesday to focus on growing tensions around Ukraine. In the face of Western fears of a large-scale Russian attack on its neighbor this winter.

Video call Started shortly after 15 GMT And it is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.

This is the second summit between Putin and Biden this year since the two met in Geneva last June. Agreed to start dialogue on cyber security and resume talks on strategic stability and nuclear disarmament, And remove barriers to the work of law enforcement agencies in the United States and Russia.

“We hope that this will be a long and significant video conference,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today. Peskov explained the two leaders Will explore “compliance with the agreement” in the Swiss city See if some issues require more attention than others.

Alarms for Ukraine

Ukraine will no doubt be One of the key discussions between the two leadersThe Kremlin confirmed this in a statement issued on Monday.

The world is watching the crisis closely. President of the European Commission Warned that further fines would be imposed If Russia attacks or threatens Ukraine while he is Ukraine’s defense minister He warned that a “bloody massacre” would ensue. If the Kremlin invades

Alarms in the West Burned after some publications in American newspapers Tens of thousands of Tussauds troops were concentrated on the Ukrainian border earlier this month.

Last Friday, the newspaper Washington Post US intelligence sources cited satellite images of the movements of Russian soldiers and They point out that about 70,000 Russian troops, equipment and artillery were transferred to the Ukrainian border.

According to US intelligence, Possible attack on Ukraine, he estimates at the beginning of 2022, “Up to 175,000 troops will be involved.”

Ukraine’s intelligence services calculate the opposite on the country’s borders. Russia currently has more than 94,000 troops and they consider it the most viable moment Ukrainian Defense Minister Olekshi Resnikov said on March 3 that the final attack would be at the end of January 2022.

Thus said Biden Is preparing a “series of measures” to defend Ukraine Putin must decide to launch a military offensive against this country.

Meanwhile, the US president will make it clear to his Russian president It is better to think twice before attacking UkrainePutin wants to present to Biden that there should be legitimate binding guarantees that NATO will not expand further into Russia and that it will not maintain “threatening weapons” in Ukrainian territory.

As for Putin, it’s a red line, and it will have consequences, as he said last week.

“Relations between Russia and the West were almost perfect in the 1990s and early 2000s. What is the need to expand NATO towards our borders? Who can answer this question? We were almost allies,” he said.

A few days before the virtual summit, Russian and US diplomatic leaders Sergei Lavrov and Anthony Blingen met in Stockholm, respectively., They also reviewed tensions around Ukraine.

Moscow wants to divert the conversation from the West Ukraine accuses of trying to forcibly recover Donbass. The Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatists have been at loggerheads since 2014 and Russia has issued 600,000 passports.

Except for Ukraine, The two leaders will talk about affected bilateral relations. Situation around Afghanistan, Iran, Libya and Syria, as well as corona virus infection and weather.

Presidents of Russia and the United States It does not plan to approve any joint statement.

(With information from EFE)

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