President Joe Biden met with the national security team, while Foreign Minister Antony Blinken stated that all signs indicate that Russia is about to invade Ukraine.
With this statement, Blinken stated that Washington will use every opportunity until the last minute to see if diplomacy will deter Moscow.
Blinken made this statement to the American CNN television.
Blinken distanced himself from the call of the Ukrainian authorities to impose sanctions on Russia now, saying that it would lose the deterrent effect of the sanctions.
The US Secretary of State said that we were on the verge of invasion and said, “We will do everything we can to prevent the invasion.”
“We will use every opportunity and every minute to see if diplomacy deters Putin until the tanks move and the planes fly,” Blinken said.
Blinken also stated that he will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov next week unless there is an invasion.
The Secretary of State said that President Biden is ready to communicate with Putin at any time, in any form, if it helps prevent war.
Telephone diplomacy from Macron
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky.
It was stated that the meeting between Macron and Putin lasted 105 minutes.
During the meeting, it is stated that the two men agreed on the need to restart work within the framework of the Normandy format, find a diplomatic solution to the current crisis and do everything to achieve it.
In this context, intense diplomatic work will be carried out in the coming days and weeks. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the coming days and various consultations will be held in Paris for this purpose.
In the meeting between Macron and Putin, it was stated that the two names could not agree on who is responsible for the events in eastern Ukraine.
While Macron blamed the Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, Putin blamed the Ukrainian government.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is also meeting on the first day of the new week.