Putin, Biden plan high-stakes phone call in Ukraine crisis

MOSCOW (AP) —
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden are to hold a high-stakes telephone call on Saturday as tensions over a possibly imminent invasion of Ukraine escalated sharply and America announced plans to evacuate its embassy in the Ukrainian capital.

Before talking to Biden, Putin is to have a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with him in Moscow earlier in the week to try to resolve the crisis.

Russia has massed well over 100,000 troops near the Ukraine border and has sent troops to exercises in neighbouring Belarus, but insistently denies that it intends to launch an offensives against Ukraine.

However, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Saturday that the country has “optimised” staffing at its embassy in Kyiv, but said the move was in response to concerns about possible military actions from the Ukrainian side.

“We conclude that our American and British colleagues apparently know about some military actions being prepared in Ukraine that could significantly complicate the situation in the security sphere,” she said.

“In this situation, fearing possible provocations by the Kyiv regime or third countries, we actually decided to somewhat optimise the staffing of Russian foreign missions in Ukraine.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by telephone Saturday.

Lavrov told Blinken that “the propaganda campaign launched by the United States and its allies about 'Russian aggression' against Ukraine pursues provocative goals.”

Britain on Saturday told its citizens to leave Ukraine. Armed Forces Minister James Heappey told the BBC that U.K. troops that have been training the Ukrainian army also would leave the country.

Germany and the Netherlands also called on their citizens to leave as soon as possible.

Adding to the sense of crisis, the Pentagon ordered an additional 3,000 U.S. troops to Poland to reassure allies.

Biden has said the U.S. military will not enter a war in Ukraine, but he has promised severe economic sanctions against Moscow, in concert with international allies.

The timing of any possible Russian military action remains a key question.

The U.S. picked up intelligence that Russia is looking at Wednesday as a target date, according to a U.S. official familiar with the findings.

The official, who was not authorised to speak publicly and did so only on condition of anonymity, would not say how definitive the intelligence was.

The White House publicly underscored that the U.S. does not know with certainty whether Putin is committed to invasion.

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