Happy New Year!
Also basically all our 2021 problems are still going in 2022, including the Russian invasion force on the border with Ukraine, as Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to make sure NATO and the west take all their things and leave the former Soviet Republics like Ukraine to a new Putin-controlled Soviet empire. Only one thing, President Joe Biden isn't budging.
President Joe Biden plans to speak with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday to express support amid Russia’s military buildup near the countries’ shared border, a White House official said Friday.
Biden also intends to review plans for diplomatic moves aimed “to help de-escalate the situation in the region,” the official said.
“I’m not going to negotiate here in public,” Biden told reporters in Delaware on Friday afternoon. “But we made it clear [Russian President Vladimir Putin] cannot, I’ll emphasize, cannot invade Ukraine.”
U.S. and Russian officials are set to hold security talks on Jan. 10 to discuss the Russia-Ukraine tensions and other issues.
On Thursday, Biden in a 50-minute phone call urged Putin to lower those tensions. He warned the U.S. was prepared to “respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
“I made it clear to President Putin that we will have severe sanctions, we will increase our presence in Europe, with NATO allies,” Biden said on Friday.
Asked if he sensed that Putin was less likely to invade Ukraine after their talk, Biden said, “Well, [what] I got the sense of is that he’s agreed that we would have three major conferences in Europe” next month.
“He laid out some of his concerns about NATO and the United States and Europe, we laid out ours,” Biden said. “I made it clear that they only could work if he de-escalated.”
“I always expect to negotiate and make progress,” Biden added.
A Kremlin aide reportedly said after the phone call with Biden that Putin “outlined in detail the basic principles laid down by Russia in the security proposals and emphasized that we will seek to ensure Russia’s security.”
Both sides know Putin wants a new Soviet empire. Both sides know Putin won't allow Ukraine to join NATO. Both sides know that Biden won't allow Putin to invade Kyiv. There's got to be a solution there that can fix all three problems, and that's what direct bi-lateral talks between national leaders are for.
So why not just have Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy say "We're never going to join NATO, so go away Vlad!" That will solve the problem, right?
Russia has already invaded Ukraine once, is the problem. They're still there in the Donbass.
We'll see what happens.