Several world leaders lined up Monday to walk a diplomatic tightrope that could mean the difference between war in Ukraine and an uneasy peace there as Russia’s menacing actions on the border of its neighbor continued unabated.
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House to shore up Western resolve against what they see as Russian aggression.
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his own marquee meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who traveled to Russia on a mission to de-escalate tensions. Putin was back at the Kremlin following his diplomatic foray to get support from China over the weekend during the Winter Olympics.
Western estimates that some 100,000 Russian troops have massed near Ukraine are increasing worries that an offensive could be only days away. At the same time, nations in the NATO military alliance were also shoring up their borders.
More:Will Russia invade Ukraine? Talks, timing, desire for a long fight factor into strategy
Biden, Scholz pledge unity on Russian-Ukraine dispute
Biden and Scholz pledged a unified, forceful response to any Russian attack against Ukraine, including severe sanctions, and the two leaders dismissed questions about divisions in the alliance. .
“If Russia makes a choice to further invade Ukraine, we are jointly ready and all of NATO is ready,” Biden said at a press conference following a bilateral meeting between the two leaders. “We’re in agreement that it cannot be business as usual if Russia further invades.”
Biden and Scholz, the new German leader, met at the White House Monday for the first time as Russia continues to build up its military presence at the Ukraine border.
“We cannot remain silent on that,” Scholz said. “We see the number of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border. And that is a serious threat to the European security..”
Biden says Nord Stream 2 will ‘end’ if Russia invades Ukraine
Biden said the U.S. would stymie Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany, should Moscow invade Ukraine.
The pipeline has been a flashpoint between the two countries, with Washington arguing it will give Moscow significant leverage over Europe. When asked to comment on Nord Stream 2, Scholz did not commit to ending the project immediately but he did not contradict Biden’s stance.
“There will be no longer a Nord Stream 2, we will bring an end to it,” Biden said when asked about the pipeline. Biden didn’t outline what steps the U.S. would take to stop the pipeline.
“I promise you, we will be able to do it,” Biden said.
Scholz said that Germany has prepared “necessary sanctions” against Russia that will be “severe” and “far-reaching” should Putin decide to invade Ukraine. Scholz stressed that NATO “will act together” in response to any attack.
Biden also pushed back on a question from the German media asking whether the U.S. doubted Berlin’s reliability.
“He has the complete trust of the United States. Germany is one of our most important allies in the world,” Biden said when asked if Germany’s tacit continuation of Nord Stream 2 undermines trust in the alliance. Scholz called the alliance a “very strong, unbreakable relationship.”
Macron aims for breakthrough in Moscow, Kyiv
Even if the 27-nation European Union as bloc has had little impact on the crisis over Ukraine, France has always felt it could force a breakthrough in the East-West stalemate, and Macron is the epitome of that confidence.
Moscow is only the first of a one-two diplomatic dance that will also take the French leader to Kyiv on Tuesday. His priority is simple — “dialogue with Russia and de-escalation.”
What makes the execution of that much more complicated is the need to keep a unified Western front among over two dozen players in the face of the Kremlin monolith, where one man’s will faces precious little opposition.
Related:German chancellor visits White House at crucial moment for European integrity
Macron’s essential challenge is making sure things don’t get worse on the ground “before building confidence gestures and mechanisms.” In an interview with the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche, Macron said Putin might make Ukraine only a means to achieve a bigger goal.
“The geopolitical objective of Russia today is clearly not Ukraine, but to clarify the rules of cohabitation with NATO and the EU,” Macron said. Even if Ukraine’s security cannot be a bargaining chip, Macron said, “it is also legitimate for Russia to pose the question of its own security.”
France, Germany resume tandem work on Ukraine
France and Germany have worked in tandem before. Seven years ago, they were essential in creating a peace deal for eastern Ukraine in a bid to end fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists that erupted in 2014 following the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
Ukrainian officials have called that peace deal unworkable and divisive, but it did tamper down the fighting.
Germany has been criticized for being slow and halfhearted in its approach to the Ukraine crisis, but on Monday, Europe’s economic juggernaut was moving on different fronts.
More:How the Nord Stream 2 pipeline became a bargaining chip in the crisis between Russia and Ukraine
As Scholz was getting ready for his meeting with Biden, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had meetings scheduled in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and is set to visit the “line of contact” with pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday.
Germany’s show of solidarity comes amid tensions over Berlin’s refusal to send weapons to Ukraine. Yet Baerbock said that “we stand — without ifs or buts — by the territorial integrity of the country and at the side of the people in Ukraine.”
Baerbock added that “together, we will react with hard and very concrete measures to any further Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
To show that the Franco-German diplomatic effort is far from over, Scholz will meet Macron and their Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda to discuss the Ukraine crisis on Tuesday.
That will allow the three leaders to compare notes from Scholz’s trip to Washington and Macron’s trip to Russia and Ukraine.
More:U.S. infantry troops arrive in Poland; officials say Russia nearly ready for invasion
Germany may boost troops in eastern Europe
Germany is also mulling sending more troops to Lithuania, potentially reinforcing its presence on NATO’s eastern flank. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has raised the possibility ahead of Scholz’s meeting with Biden.
The German leader is due to receive on Thursday the leaders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the three Baltic states who specifically feel the heat from Moscow, before traveling to Ukraine and Russia next week. Germany has led a NATO battlegroup in Lithuania for the past five years.
A few dozen elite U.S troops and equipment were seen landing Sunday in southeastern Poland near the border with Ukraine, following Biden’s orders to deploy 1,700 soldiers there amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Hundreds more infantry troops of the 82nd Airborne Division are still expected to arrive at the Rzeszow-Jasionka airport, 56 miles from Poland’s border with Ukraine.
Contributing: Associated Press
