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Joe Biden reaffirmed “America’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and allegiance” in a speech by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday amid concerns over the US President’s concerns. negotiations with Russia on its demands to reduce Nato growth.
Arriving in Ukraine, along with other Nato 9 allies in Eastern Europe, Biden came to the fore after he said he wanted to hold talks with Russia and four unnamed Nato allies on Moscow over the alliance.
The talks could affect “the future of Russia’s Nato-related crisis” and review “whether we can improve accommodation,” Biden said.
The comments followed a formal meeting with Vladimir Putin the previous day aimed at curbing the invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s president, who oversees a major military operation on the country’s border with Ukraine, said US intelligence may be available. used for attacks, has asked Nato not to make Kyiv a member.
Putin has also called for a transatlantic agreement to stop sending troops to countries in Eastern Europe bordering Russia.
On Thursday, a White House official denied allegations that Biden had made a “confession” in response to talks about Putin and that the US President was late in speaking to Zelensky.
“One thing I can say that the President made it very clear to Zelensky in his speech today is that if Ukraine is in the public eye, then Ukraine is on the table,” he said.
According to White House readings on Biden’s rhetoric with nine NATO allies, the leaders discussed the rise of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border and “the need for a united, ready and courageous NATO to protect the entire alliance”. .
However, some in the region have already expressed concern over Biden’s offer to discuss Russia’s Nato status.
“I believe I’m wrong but I smell ‘Munich’ here,” Marko Mihkelson, head of the Estonian foreign parliamentary foreign committee, told the Financial Times, referring to the 1938 European agreement to try to avoid conflicts with Nazi Germany. by removing the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.
“Initiating a dialogue on the future of Nato, or even implicating Russia in a veto-Europe defense operation – this is a very wrong approach and will lead to a desire for violence,” Mihkelson added.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU told FT that Kyiv’s “red line” was that “Ukraine is an independent country and it is our business in which we build our relations with Nato, the EU or other countries”.
“The main point for us is that there is no word about Ukraine without Ukraine, so we should be involved in any negotiations on Ukraine’s security,” said Vsevolod Chentsov. “The Russians must agree. There is no other way.”
Following a call from Biden, Zelensky wrote that his US counterpart had summarized his “talks with Putin”, adding that he had “also discussed ways to resolve the conflict in the Donbas”.
A White House spokesman has previously denied that the US wants to please Russia: “President Biden looked President Putin in the eye and told him that one country could not tell another to change its borders.”
A senior Western lawmaker stated: “I would not immediately say that the worst thing that can happen to a politician is what Washington wants to do.”
“While everyone is ready to discuss, there can be no agreement. . . to protect others, ”a Nato official told FT. “And in Ukraine we are not talking about the right of nations to choose their own way.”
Additional reports by Lauren Fedor in Washington
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