On Tuesday, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin held a virtual summit but made little progress in defusing the crisis over Ukraine in the wake of a Russian troop build-up, and instead delegated officials from both countries to stay in touch.
The two leaders talked about it in a videoconference for just over two hours. The White House account said that Biden had expressed deep concerns about the Russian military buildup around Ukraine and made clear that the US and our allies would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation. There are economic measures under consideration including a ban on the secondary market in Russian bonds, sanctions on major Russian corporations and banks and possible expulsion from the international electronic payments system, Swift.
The US president stated his support for Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, and called for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy.
The White House said the two leaders had tasked their teams to follow up, adding that the US would do so in coordination with allies and partners.
Biden spoke to the leaders of Italy, Germany, France and Britain on a conference call after the call. The president had consulted on Monday, and the White House said they had agreed to stay in close touch on a coordinated and comprehensive approach in response to Russia's military build-up on Ukraine's borders. Russia was unusually slow in delivering its version of the results of the talks on Tuesday. The Kremlin had not published an official readout more than an hour after the talks ended.
Before the talks, Putin greeted Biden informally, leaning back in his chair and waving at a television screen: Hello, Mr President. Russian television reported that talks were held one-on-one without any aides other than interpreters.
Russian officials said that Putin would press Biden in order to force Kyiv to abide by the Minsk agreements 2015, an agreement that both Russia and Ukraine have accused of violating. The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said ahead of the talks that Kyiv won't listen to anyone but the United States.
The agreement stipulates that Ukraine should reform its constitution and open direct talks with Russian-backed separatists, both of which are extremely unpopular in Kyiv. The requests were considered non-starters, according to analysts.
Russia also said that Putin would press Biden on his red lines including Kremlin opposition to Ukraine's entry into Nato or a large cooperation between Kyiv and the military alliance.
Russia isn't going to attack anyone, but we have our own concerns and our own red lines. Putin has made sure they are clear, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters before the talks.
Analysts said that Putin was prepared to use force in order to achieve his aims in Ukraine, but that an offensive was not a foregone conclusion.
Putin keeps raising the stakes in order to test the resilience of the west, said Pavlo Klimkin, the former Ukrainian foreign minister, in an interview before the talks.
He said that the meeting would likely result in only modest gains, such as an agreement to continue further talks.
Klimkin said that if they agree to talk bilaterally or within the Normandy format with a clear agenda, that would be a sign of deescalation. The Normandy format is a contact group of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France that is set to pursue negotiations on Ukraine in 2014.
He said it was unlikely that Putin would order a quick drawdown of Russia's forces at the borders.
He said they will stay. It is important for Russians to start a discussion with the Americans and Europe on anything. Strategic stability is one of the main issues on other issues. But also on so-called legal guarantees for Nato not to be enlarged. This is a very important factor in any dialogue with the United States. Only if he understands that he lost or won, the forces will be put back to base.