US and Russia agree to hold talks while Putin invades Ukraine
Written byTimes Magazine
US officials said talks about deploying Russian troops near Ukraine could occur in January after President Vladimir Putin said he hoped to meet in Geneva. Russia's head of state called for immediate guarantees for NATO's future to calm the crisis.
"The ball is up to you. You have to give us an answer," Putin said at his annual news conference. He threatened military action but denied invading Ukraine. More than 100,000 Russian troops were sent near the Ukrainian border.
Senior White House officials have refused to respond to a landmark call by NATO's Russian president to halt all military activity in Eastern Europe and not accept Ukraine as a member. However, neither appears to have started yet.
"You have to give us guarantees now and give them immediately," Putin said on Thursday, stressing that military action was not his preferred option.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that while there was no final agreement on diplomatic talks, the United States was working for them and looking forward to it.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she welcomed that Moscow had "signed its readiness to start talks in January" but warned that any Russian strike would be subject to sanctions that would hit the Russian economy.
Despite rising tensions on the border with Ukraine, there is a glimmer of hope in the country's east, where Russia-backed separatists have been at war with the Ukrainian military for seven years.
The shaky 2020 ceasefire agreement was renewed by Ukraine, Russia, and the rebels and hailed by the Presidential Cabinet in Kyiv as a step towards de-escalation.
President Putin outlined Ukraine's "red lines" a few days ago and came to life when he was asked at his annual press conference on Thursday at the end of the year whether he would guarantee there would be no invasion.
"We have not reached the borders of the United States or Great Britain; no, they have come to our borders," he said during the four-hour session, accusing NATO of defrauding Russia with five waves of expansion since the 1990s.
Psaki pointed out that the only aggression on Russia's border with Ukraine was Russian troops and "Putin's militant rhetoric."
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