WASHINGTON, United States — US
President
Joe Biden is maintaining pressure on Russian leader
Vladimir Putin
over Ukraine after announcing a small troop deployment to eastern Europe even
as top Pentagon officials backed a renewed push for diplomacy.
اضافة اعلان
As Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky
urged Western leaders to avoid stirring "panic" over the massive
Russian troop buildup on his country's borders, Putin and French President
Emmanuel Macron agreed on the need for de-escalation.
Neither Putin nor his European and American
counterparts had until now appeared ready to give ground in the weeks-long
crisis, the worst in decades between Russia and the West.
But according to a Macron aide, Putin told
the French leader in a call lasting more than an hour that he had "no
offensive plans."
In Washington, Biden nevertheless said
Friday he would soon send a small number of US troops to bolster the
NATO presence in Eastern Europe as tensions remain heightened.
The US already has tens of thousands of
troops stationed across mostly Western Europe.
At the Pentagon, top officials urged a focus
on diplomacy while saying that Russia now had enough troops and equipment in
place to threaten the whole of Ukraine.
Any such conflict, warned the top US
general, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, would be "horrific" for
both sides.
"If that was unleashed on
Ukraine, it
would be significant, very significant, and it would result in a significant
amount of casualties," Milley said.
But speaking alongside Milley, Defense
Secretary
Lloyd Austin said there "is still time and space for diplomacy.
"Mr Putin can do the right thing as
well," said Austin. "There is no reason that this situation has to
devolve into conflict."
During his talks with Macron, Putin
"expressed no offensive plans and said he wanted to continue the talks
with France and our allies," the aide to the French president said.
Their conversation "enabled us to agree
on the need for a de-escalation," the aide told journalists. Putin
"said very clearly that he did not want confrontation."
Complex threat
Since October,
Russia has amassed more than
100,000 combat troops and equipment, as well as support forces, along its
frontier with Ukraine and more recently in Belarus, which borders Ukraine on
the north.
Western officials say Russia has also
mustered more air and sea assets in the region, creating a complex threat like
none seen since the Cold War.
Moscow has demanded wide-ranging security
guarantees, including that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO.
Those demands have been the subject of
intensive negotiations, with the West warning of far-reaching consequences if
diplomacy fails and Russia attacks.
"We don't need this panic,"
Zelensky told a news conference with foreign media, expressing concern over
"signals even from respected leaders."
He said he sought to avoid hurting his
country's already battered economy.
Later this week, British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson is expected to speak with Putin and add to the chorus of Western
leaders urging him to back down.
Polish Prime Minister
Mateusz Morawiecki is
due in Kyiv on Tuesday to meet the president and prime minister.
"Poland supports Ukraine in preventing
Russia's aggression," Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller tweeted.
"We will do everything possible to maintain peace in Europe."
Russia's concerns not addressed
To Macron, Putin made clear that the written
responses from the West to his demands this week had fallen short of Russia's
expectations, the Kremlin said.
"The US and NATO responses did not take
into account Russia's fundamental concerns including preventing NATO's
expansion," Putin said, according to the Kremlin's readout of the call.
He added that the West had ignored the
"key question," that no country should strengthen its security at the
expense of others, adding Russia would "carefully study" the
responses, "after which it will decide on further actions."
Russia has also demanded a pullback of NATO
forces deployed to eastern European and ex-Soviet countries that joined the
alliance after the
Cold War.
In a sign of continued tensions, Russia
announced Friday evening it had added several EU officials to a list of people
banned from entering the country, saying they were responsible for
"anti-Russian policies."
Threat to key pipeline
The Putin-Macron phone call followed talks
in Paris this week between Russia and Ukraine, with France and Germany
alongside, which produced a joint statement committing to preserving a ceasefire
in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Moscow separatists.
They also agreed to hold new talks in Berlin
in February.
"Taking into account the results of the
meeting" in Paris, the Kremlin said, "the mood for further work of
Russia and France in this format was confirmed."
In tandem with the diplomacy, the West has
upped its threats of a tough response to an invasion.
Washington and Berlin have warned that the
Nord Stream 2 pipeline, designed to double supplies of Russian natural gas to
Germany, was at stake.
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