{"id":56267,"date":"2022-02-21T12:08:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T12:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/02\/21\/biden-putin-meeting-discussed-as-ukraine-war-fears-loom\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:29:10","slug":"biden-putin-meeting-discussed-as-ukraine-war-fears-loom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2022\/02\/21\/biden-putin-meeting-discussed-as-ukraine-war-fears-loom\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden-Putin meeting discussed as Ukraine war fears loom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. and Russian presidents have tentatively agreed to meet in a last-ditch diplomatic effort to stave off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/ukraine\/2022\/02\/18\/putin-has-decided-to-attack-ukraine-biden-says\/\" target=\"_blank\">Moscow\u2019s further invasion of Ukraine <\/a>as heavy shelling continued Monday in a conflict in eastern Ukraine that is feared will spark the Russian offensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">French President Emmanuel Macron sought to broker a possible meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a series of phone calls that dragged into the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Macron\u2019s office said both leaders had \u201caccepted the principle of such a summit,\u201d to be followed by a broader summit meeting also involving other \u201crelevant stakeholders to discuss security and strategic stability in Europe.\u201d It added that the meetings \u201ccan only be held on the condition that Russia does not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/ukraine\/2022\/02\/19\/russia-uncoiling-and-poised-to-strike-says-us-defense-secretary\/\" target=\"_blank\">invade Ukraine<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">White House press secretary Jen Psaki, said the administration has been clear that \u201cwe are committed to pursuing diplomacy until the moment an invasion begins.\u201d She noted that \u201ccurrently, Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"339\" height=\"198\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukie22022.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-54728\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukie22022.jpg.jpg 339w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ukie22022.jpg.jpg?resize=300,175 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 339px) 100vw, 339px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In this photo made from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022, Russian marines take their position during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground in Belarus. Russia has deployed troops to its ally Belarus for sweeping joint military drills that run through Sunday, fueling Western concerns that Moscow could use the exercise to attack Ukraine from the north. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Macron\u2019s office said that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are set to lay the groundwork for the summit when they meet Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It followed a flurry of calls by Macron to Putin, Biden and also British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Putin and Biden could meet if they consider it necessary, but emphasized that \u201cit\u2019s premature to talk about specific plans for a summit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe meeting is possible if the leaders consider it feasible,\u201d he said in a conference call with reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The prospective meeting offers new hope of averting a Russian invasion that U.S. officials said could begin any moment with an estimated 150,000 Russian troops amassed near Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link smg-interstitial-link--fallback wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/archetype-military-times-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/composer-preview\/LPNQ24U37VEULLG25SQ2SZ4O2M\/?_website=military-times&#038;published=false&#038;_ignoreCache=true&#038;language=language&#038;owner=militarytimes\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__fallback-link\">\u2018Our troops will be fine\u2019 Austin says of deployments to Europe amid Ukraine threat<\/a><\/aside>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAll signs look like President Putin and the Russians are proceeding with a plan to execute a major military invasion of Ukraine,\u201d said national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking with ABC news. \u201cWe have seen just in the last 24 hours, further moves of Russian units to the border with no other good explanation other than they\u2019re getting into position to attack. We couldn\u2019t predict the exact time but it certainly looks like the Russians are proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adding to fears of an imminent attack, Russia and its ally Belarus announced Sunday that they were extending massive war games on Belarusian territory that offers a convenient bridgehead for an attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, located just 75 kilometers (less than 50 miles) south of the border with Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Starting Thursday, shelling also spiked along the tense line of contact between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatist rebels in Ukraine\u2019s eastern industrial heartland, Donbas, where over 14,000 people have been killed since conflict erupted in 2014 shortly after Moscow\u2019s annexation of Ukraine\u2019s Crimean Peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ukraine and the rebels have traded blame for massive cease-fire violations with hundreds of explosions recorded daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Friday, separatist officials announced the evacuation of civilians and military mobilization in the face of what they described as an imminent Ukrainian offensive on the rebel regions. Ukrainian officials have strongly denied any plans to launch such an attack and described the evacuation order as part of Russian provocations intended to set the stage for an invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The separatist authorities said Monday that at least four civilians were killed by Ukrainian shelling over the past 24 hours and several others were injured. Ukraine\u2019s military said two Ukrainian soldiers were killed over the weekend, and another serviceman was wounded Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ukrainian military spokesman Pavlo Kovalchyuk said the Ukrainian positions were shelled 80 times Sunday and eight times early Monday, noting that the separatists were \u201ccynically firing from residential areas using civilians as shields.\u201d He insisted that Ukrainian forces weren\u2019t returning fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"339\" height=\"226\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URdip1.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-95185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URdip1.jpg.jpg 339w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/URdip1.jpg.jpg?resize=300,200 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 339px) 100vw, 339px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Tetyana Tomenko, a local resident, cries standing in front of her damaged house after alleged shelling by separatists forces in Novognativka, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022. Russia is extending military drills near Ukraine&#8217;s northern borders after two days of sustained shelling along the contact line between Ukrainian soldiers and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The exercises in Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north, originally were set to end on Sunday. (AP Photo\/Evgeniy Maloletka)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the village of Novognativka on the government-controlled side, 60-year-old Ekaterina Evseeva, said the shelling was worse than at the height of fighting early in the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s worse than 2014,\u201d she said, her voice trembling. \u201cWe are on the edge of nervous breakdowns. And there is nowhere to run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Evseeva said that residents were hunkering down in basements amid the renewed fighting: \u201cYesterday I saw my neighbor with her 2-month-old as she was running to the basement. It shouldn\u2019t be like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Amid the heightened invasion fears, the Kremlin reacted angrily to a New York Times report that the U.S. administration has sent a letter to the United Nations human rights chief claiming that Moscow has compiled a list of Ukrainians to be killed or sent to detention camps after the invasion. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the claim was a lie and no such list exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moscow denies any plans to invade Ukraine, but wants Western guarantees that NATO won\u2019t allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join as members. It also urges the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe \u2014 demands flatly rejected by the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russian officials have shrugged off Western calls to deescalate by pulling back troops, arguing that Moscow is free to deploy troops and conduct drills wherever it likes on its territory. Last week, Western officials dismissed Russian statements about some of the troops returning to their bases, saying that Moscow was actually beefing up its forces around Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite Biden\u2019s assertion last week that Putin has made the decision to roll Russian forces into Ukraine, Ukrainian officials sought to project calm, saying that they aren\u2019t seeing invasion as imminent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Monday that Russia has amassed 147,000 troops around Ukraine, including 9,000 in Belarus, arguing that the number is clearly insufficient for an offensive on the Ukrainian capital from the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe talk about an attack on Kyiv from the Belarusian side sounds ridiculous,\u201d he said, charging that Russia is using the troops there as a scare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Russia upped the ante Saturday with sweeping nuclear drills that included multiple practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and cruise missiles that Putin personally oversaw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The European Union\u2019s top diplomat, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, welcomed the prospect of a Biden-Putin summit but said that should diplomacy fail the 27-nation bloc has finalized its package of sanctions for use if Putin orders an invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe work is done. We are ready,\u201d said Borrell, who is chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers and was tasked with drawing up a list of people in Russia to be hit with asset freezes and travel bans. He provided no details about who might be targeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock welcomed Macron\u2019s summit initiative and warned Russia against any false flag action to provoke hostilities. \u201cI appeal urgently to the Russian government, to the Russian president: Don\u2019t play with human lives,\u201d she said as she arrived at the EU top diplomats\u2019 meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Karmanau reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Cook from Brussels. Lori Hinnant in Kyiv; Angela Charlton in Paris; Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani in Munich, Germany; Geir Moulson in Berlin; and Ellen Knickmeyer, Robert Burns, Matthew Lee and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cAll signs look like President Putin and the Russians are\u00a0proceeding with a plan to\u00a0execute a major military\u00a0invasion of Ukraine.\u201d \u2014 White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NtIBeN4KzY\">https:\/\/t.co\/NtIBeN4KzY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/niHOv17Q8A\">pic.twitter.com\/niHOv17Q8A<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Good Morning America (@GMA) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GMA\/status\/1495734868654837761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 21, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last ditch diplomatic efforts are underway as the conflict continues to heat up in Ukraine&#8217;s east.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":74581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":13,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,13,24,89,16,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1323,3211,1659],"class_list":["post-56267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"RWB7P777PREJFGQTUM264U345Y","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/ukraine\/2022\/02\/21\/biden-putin-meeting-discussed-as-ukraine-war-fears-loom\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Biden-Putin meeting discussed as Ukraine war fears loom - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last ditch diplomatic efforts are underway as the conflict continues to heat up in Ukraine&#039;s east.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2022\/02\/21\/biden-putin-meeting-discussed-as-ukraine-war-fears-loom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biden-Putin meeting discussed as Ukraine war fears loom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last ditch diplomatic efforts are underway as 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