Shkoi Kurdistan-
President Joe Biden warned President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that continuing Russia’s aggressive military buildup on the border with Ukraine could force NATO to move more troops into eastern Europe and reiterated any further violation of its territory would exact “serious costs and consequences,” administration officials said.
But they also expressed hope that more formal “strategic stability talks” between Washington and Moscow, which are set for January on a myriad of issues, could lead to a path out of the current crisis.
“President Biden laid out two aspects of the U.S. approach that will really depend on Russia’s actions in the period ahead,” a senior administration official told reporters after the afternoon call Washington time. “One is a path of diplomacy leading toward a declaration of the situation and the other is a path that is more focused on deterrence, including serious costs and consequences should Russia choose to proceed with a further invasion of Ukraine.”
The official said that includes “adjustments and augmentation of NATO force posture in allied countries” as well as “additional assistance to Ukraine to enable it to further defend itself and its territory.“
In a statement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki also said Biden told Putin that the U.S. and its allies “will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine.”
Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, reportedly said “unprecedented sanctions” leveled on Russia by the U.S. could cause “most serious damage” and a “total severance of relations.”
But the Russian side, which has threatened in recent days that moves to include Ukraine in NATO would lead to a major war in Europe, appeared to strike a positive tone after the call.
Ushakov reportedly said that Biden told the Russian leader that the United States would not place missiles in Ukraine.
“It is interesting that Ushakov kind of sounded an upbeat, optimistic note shortly after the call, saying that Biden had … reassure that the U.S. doesn’t have the intention of putting missiles in Ukraine,” said John Hardie, a Russia expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish think tank. “From the Russian side, they seem slightly more optimistic than they were overall.”
