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According to the Kremlin, US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart will speak next week in tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
A Russian government spokesman told state news agency RIA Novosti that the video call will take place on the night of December 7.
Asked for the length of the meeting, he said that “the president himself” “decides it.”
The White House has not responded to requests for comment and has not said it will call. White House spokesman Jen Psaki described a possible meeting between presidents earlier this week.
“We have known Russia’s actions for a long time and expect to have a long talk with Putin,” Biden said when he left Washington on the weekend at Camp David on Friday.
Biden and other US officials have expressed concern about the buildup of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian officials said they estimated that more than 90,000 Russian troops were in Russia-occupied Crimea near the border and believed that the attack was imminent. They sought help from the United States and other countries to defend its borders.
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. It became an independent country in 1991.
Western nations see Ukraine as a breakwater against Russia. Russia has more territorial ambitions. Russia occupied Crimea when former US President Barack Obama took office in 2014.
Biden told reporters in Washington on Friday that he was in constant contact with Ukrainian officials.
“And what I do, I believe, will be Putin’s most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very difficult for people to go ahead and do what people are worried about. It’s about summarizing what you’re doing, “he said.
According to the Kremlin, Putin will call next week to force Biden to promise that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will not expand to Russia.
“I don’t accept anyone’s red line,” Biden said on Friday.
NATO Secretary-General Jason Stoltenberg called on Russia for transparency on Tuesday, saying Russia’s accumulation was “not provoked and unexplained.”
Biden and Putin have had an unstable relationship shortly after Biden took office.
The Russian president was angry that Putin was a “murderer” in a television interview and challenged Biden to a live debate.
This pair is known to have been last spoken in July. According to White House sources, Biden told Putin that he needed to take action to confuse so-called ransomware groups or hackers operating in Russia.
Biden also reiterated that the United States “in the face of this ongoing challenge, will take the necessary actions to protect its people and their critical infrastructure.”
Nick Ciolino and NTD’s Lorenz Duchamps contributed to this report.
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Zachary Stieber covers US news and stories related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is based in Maryland.
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