REUTERS Denis Balibouse Pool
WASHINGTON MOSCOW, Dec 4 Reuters - U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a video call on Tuesday to deal with military tensions over Ukraine and other topics.
Biden wants to discuss the U.S. concerns about Russia's military buildup on the Ukraine border, as well as strategic stability, cyber and regional issues, a U.S. source said on Saturday.
As he left for a weekend trip to Camp David, Biden told reporters on Friday that he was aware of Russia's actions for a long time and that my expectation is that we're going to have a long discussion with Putin. He said I don't accept anyone's red lines.
The two will talk about bilateral ties and the implementation of agreements reached at the Geneva summit in June, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
The conversation will take place on Tuesday, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He said that the main items on the agenda are the United States' relations, and the realisation of the agreements reached in Geneva.
More than 94,000 Russian troops are massed near Ukraine's borders. According to the Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, Russia may be planning a large military offensive for the end of January, according to intelligence reports.
Biden will be reaffirming the United States' support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, according to a U.S. source. The exact timing of the call was not known. The White House didn't want to say anything.
The U.S. president said on Friday that he and his advisers are preparing a comprehensive set of initiatives to deter Putin from an invasion. He didn't give any more details, but the Biden administration has discussed partnering with European allies to impose more sanctions on Russia.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was committed to ensuring that Ukraine had what it needed to protect its territory.
There was a lot of room for diplomacy and leadership in Ukraine, according to Austin.
Moscow accuses Kyiv of pursuing its own military build-up. It has rejected as inflammatory suggestions that it is preparing for an attack on its southern neighbor and has defended its right to deploy troops on its own territory as it sees fit.
The U.S. officials don't know what Putin's intentions are, but it is unclear whether a final decision will be made about the possibility of a possible invasion of Ukraine.
U.S.-Russia relations have deteriorated over the past several years, notably with Russia annexing Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, its intervention in Syria and U.S. intelligence charges of meddling in the 2016 election won by now-former President Donald Trump.
They have become more volatile in the last few months.
In November, the Biden administration asked Moscow to crack down on ransomware and cyber crime attacks originating from Russian soil, and charged a Ukrainian national and a Russian in one of the worst ransomware attacks against American targets.
Russia has denied committing or tolerating cyber attacks.
The two leaders have had one face-to- face meeting since Biden took office in January, sitting down for talks in Geneva last June. They last talked by phone on July 9. Biden enjoys direct talks with world leaders and sees them as a way to lower tensions.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Stockholm earlier this week that the United States and its European allies would impose severe costs and consequences on Russia if it takes further aggressive action against Ukraine.