US President Joe Biden said on Friday (December 3) that he would make any Russian invasion of Ukraine “very, very difficult” and warned that he might plan a large-scale attack next month.
Washington and Kiev claimed that Moscow had assembled troops near the Ukrainian border and accused Russia of planning an invasion.
Both sides confirmed on Friday that Biden and President Vladimir Putin will soon hold a video call to discuss the growing tension.
Biden told reporters in Washington that he is formulating “the most comprehensive and meaningful series of measures that will make it difficult for Putin to continue to do what people fear he might do.”
Moscow captured Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has since supported separatists fighting Kiev in the east of the country. The conflict has caused more than 13,000 deaths.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksi Reznikov told the parliament in Kiev on Friday: “The most likely time to be ready for an upgrade is the end of January.”
The Washington Post on Friday quoted US officials and an intelligence document as reporting that Russia is planning to launch a multi-line offensive involving as many as 175,000 soldiers as soon as next year.
Reznikov said that Russia has begun a “winter training period” and Moscow has carried out exercises near Ukrainian territory.
He estimated that Russia has about 100,000 soldiers near the Ukrainian border. Russia denies any military buildup.
‘This is our land’
On the front lines in eastern Ukraine, government forces stated that they are ready to repel any Russian offensive.
“Our task is simple: keep the enemy from entering our country,” a 29-year-old soldier told AFP as he smoked in a trench near the front-line town of Svetlodarsk.
“All of us are ready to stop them. This is our land, and we will protect it until the end,” added Yevgen, another 24-year-old soldier.
The Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters that the date of the Putin-Biden video summit has been agreed, but will not be announced until the final details of the talks are confirmed.
US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken said that he expects to receive a call “in the near future.”
When asked if he had spoken to Putin on Friday morning, Biden yelled “no” as he left the press conference in Washington.
He did not elaborate on his planned “actions” on the Ukrainian issue.
Putin warned the West and Kiev not to cross the Kremlin’s “red line” of military exercises and weapons establishment in Ukraine.
When a reporter asked whether Biden would accept Putin’s route, he replied: “I will not accept anyone’s red line.”
Although contact between the two rivals has increased since Putin and Biden met for the first time at a summit in Geneva in June, tensions remain high.
In addition to the conflict in Ukraine, after several waves of diplomatic expulsions, Russia and the United States continue to argue over cyber attacks and embassy staffing.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba told AFP on Friday that it rejected any effort to get it to cancel its NATO membership plan.
After most of Eastern Europe joined NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow hopes to see the end of NATO’s eastward expansion.
Kuleba said on the sidelines of the OSCE meeting in Stockholm that agreeing to abandon the plan to join the alliance was “not an option”.
“I am opposed to the idea that we must guarantee anything to Russia. I insist that Russia must guarantee that it will not continue to invade any country,” he said.
NATO officially opened the door for Ukraine to join in 2008, but no progress has been made since.
