The situation in Ukraine: after Biden's conversation with Zelensky, Western countries took a tougher stance to contain Russia

US President Joe Biden on the evening of January 2 held a telephone conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky, during which he promised to give a decisive answer in the event of a Russian attack on Ukraine, reports BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

The conversation lasted an hour and a half.

30 December Biden conducted telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin, now the US President has spoken with his Ukrainian counterpart.

“President Biden has made clear that the United States, along with allies and partners, will respond if Russia invades Ukraine again,” the US presidential administration said in a statement.

The White House said that Biden also spoke out in support of diplomatic efforts to implement the Minsk agreements and promised that Washington would not make decisions regarding partners without their knowledge.

The President of Ukraine, after speaking with Biden, said that he appreciates Ukraine's unwavering support.

According to Zelensky, the first international conversation of the year with the President of the United States proves the special nature of the relationship.

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“We discussed joint actions with the United States and partners to maintain peace in Europe and prevent further escalation, reforms and de-oligarchization,” Zelensky said.

He did not specify what kind of reforms he was talking about. However, on the eve, the commission for the election of the head of the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office failed to announce the winner.

Although Zelenskiy promised Biden long ago that an independent prosecutor would be elected. The commission has significant influence from government officials, and the favorite, who is not declared the winner, is an inconvenient candidate for Bankova.

Last week, Biden, in a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin, threatened with harsh sanctions and increased aid to Ukraine if Russia commits aggression.

Biden called for a negotiated resolution to the conflict, starting in January along three lines: US-Russian bilateral talks in Geneva on January 9-10, NATO-Russia Council and OSCE talks on January 12-13, but stressed progress in these negotiations could be achieved only in case of de-escalation of the situation around Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden has called on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to ease tensions and boost diplomatic efforts around Ukraine. This was discussed in a 50-minute conversation between the two leaders on December 30 in the evening.

This was the second conversation between the presidents of the United States and Russia in December. It took place at the initiative of the Kremlin.

Moscow has denied plans to invade, claiming that its troops are stationed there for training and that it has the right to move its forces freely on its territory.

"A decisive response" from the US

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said after talks on December 30 that President Joe Biden had called on Russia to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine.

“He made it clear that the United States and its allies and partners would respond if Russia invaded Ukraine,” she said.

President Biden also supported diplomatic talks to be held early next year at the level of the NATO-Russia Council and at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

“President Biden reiterated that meaningful progress in these dialogues can only happen through de-escalation, not escalation,” Psaki said in comments following the talks.

And the White House official added that Joe Biden voiced to Vladimir Putin two approaches of the United States to Russia, which will depend on the further actions of the Russian Federation with respect to Ukraine.

“The first is the path of diplomacy, leading to de-escalation of the situation. The other path is more about deterrence, including serious costs and consequences if Russia chooses to invade Ukraine,” he said at a briefing.

We are talking about both economic measures and assistance to Ukraine so that it can defend its territory.

The parties agreed that Russian officials should meet with their American counterparts in Geneva on January 9-10 to discuss arms control and rising tensions around Ukraine as part of a bilateral dialogue on strategic stability.

It is known that on the Russian side it will be Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, and on the US side - Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman.

On January 12, a separate meeting of the Russia-NATO Council will take place in Brussels, and a day later - a meeting in Vienna within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which includes the United States, its European allies, Ukraine and Russia.

Sanctions and severance of relations

The Kremlin was satisfied with the telephone conversation and the prospects for further diplomacy in early 2022.
Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said Biden had told the Russian leader that the US had no intention of deploying offensive weapons in Ukraine.

At the same time, according to Ushakov, in a conversation with Putin, Biden stressed that if the escalation continues along the Ukrainian border, Western countries will impose large-scale sanctions in the economic, financial and military spheres.

“But our president immediately responded to this: if the West nevertheless decides to impose the aforementioned unprecedented sanctions under certain conditions, then all this could lead to a complete breakdown in relations between our countries,” says Ushakov.

According to him, Putin emphasized that descendants will evaluate this as a “huge mistake.”

Voltage rise

The second conversation between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin a month later took place against the backdrop of growing tensions over the accumulation of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border.

In the fall, the media, citing intelligence data, reported on the concentration of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine. The United States and Western countries have suggested that Moscow is preparing a new large-scale military invasion.

Ukrainian security officials say more than 100 Russian troops have been pulled up to the Ukrainian-Russian border.

The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, even assumed that the Russian attack could begin at the end of January in several directions at once from the sea and by air.

The Kremlin rejected these statements and demanded from the United States and NATO legal guarantees that the alliance would not expand eastward and that the weapons of the member countries would not be sent to Ukraine or to neighboring countries of the Russian Federation.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine's membership in the alliance is a matter for NATO and Kiev.
Although Ukraine is not a NATO member, it has close ties with the alliance. However, there is no prospect of membership in the coming years.

On December 30, the National Security and Defense Council announced that it did not see the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. NSDC Secretary Alexei Danilov assured that Moscow cannot yet launch a full-fledged invasion.

“Today there is absolutely no need to scare society,” he said. “There is a big information campaign going on now, we do not see a direct threat to our state today. Could some other decision be made in the Kremlin? Maybe. If it is accepted, we will immediately inform and work,” he said.

Danilov said that, according to Ukrainian experts, despite the demonstrative accumulation of Russian troops near the Ukrainian borders in recent months, “the Russian Federation cannot even physically carry out a large invasion.”

“There is a slight increase, but it is not too critical for us. Rest peacefully, celebrate,” Danilov said.

Ukraine's guarantors under the Budapest Memorandum announced the inadmissibility of a nuclear war

On Monday, January 3, the leaders of Russia, Britain, the United States, China and France - the five countries that officially possess nuclear weapons - issued a joint statement to prevent nuclear war and an arms race. CNN.

“We declare that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be fought,” the text reads.

According to the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, the document was adopted at the initiative of Russia. He was preparing for the opening of a conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty in New York, which was to begin on Tuesday January 4.

Although the start of the conference was postponed, the leaders of the five countries decided to publish the text. It is available, in particular, on sites The Kremlin, White House и Elysee Palace.

“We reaffirm that none of our nuclear weapons are aimed at each other or any other nation,” the White House said in a statement on its website.
Zakharova hopes that the agreement on this document will help reduce tensions in the world.

The statement emphasizes that states possessing nuclear weapons are obligated to prevent their use. They also expressed their commitment to the "ultimate goal of a world free of nuclear weapons."

The nuclear states have also pledged to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to work within the framework of international agreements and conventions.

The leaders of the five countries said they intend to continue to "avoid military confrontation, enhance stability and predictability, increase mutual understanding and trust, and prevent an arms race that would benefit no one and threaten everyone."

Fu Kong, head of the arms control department at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, considers this understanding historical. “It reaffirmed that a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought,” a Chinese official tweeted.

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The same five countries were the guarantors of Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum, an agreement of 1994.
According to the agreement, Ukraine renounced the status of a nuclear state, and the United States, Russia and Britain (later China and France joined them), in exchange for this, gave it guarantees of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Against the background of the events in Crimea and Donbass, Ukrainian politicians have repeatedly appealed to the points of the Budapest Memorandum, accusing the signatories of the document, primarily Russia, of violating or failing to fulfill their obligations.

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