On Tuesday, President Joe Biden will hold a virtual meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the important problem of Russia's rising military position along the Ukrainian border—and the threat of an invasion.
The two men are scheduled to speak at 12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. According to US information received by The Washington Post and other sites in November, the Kremlin may be plotting an invasion with up to 175,000 troops as early as 2022, alarming Washington and Europe.
The Kremlin has stated that it has no plans to strike, and has accused the West of inventing allegations in order to hide their own claimed aggressiveness.
Tensions have remained between Russia and Ukraine since the latter's 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union, particularly in the eastern section of the country known as Donbas.
When Russia invaded Crimea in eastern Ukraine in February 2014, it was looking to reclaim areas it considered Russian.
Putin stated at the time that the acquisition of Crimea was done to "provide suitable circumstances for the people of Crimea to freely express their choice."
The annexation was seen as a breach of Ukraine's sovereignty by Ukraine and many other countries, while Russia sponsored a separatist movement in Eastern Ukraine.
Since then, the battle in Donbas has raged, with 14,000 people dying as a result. A fragile ceasefire agreement brokered by France and Germany in 2015 helped end a large-scale conflict, but it did not bring peace to Eastern Ukraine, where violence flared up sporadically.
Despite the fact that the Minsk agreement was widely regarded as a gain for Moscow since it obliged Ukraine to offer autonomy to rebel territories, the Kremlin has accused Ukraine of violating the peace pact and chastised the West for failing to press Kyiv to comply.
Ukraine has accused separatists backed by Russia of repeatedly breaking ceasefire agreements, though the Kremlin has denied this.
Moscow, according to policy analysts and think tanks, is determined to reclaim imperial control over Kyiv. Putin has tried several times to seize huge swaths of Ukrainian territory that he claims are ancient Russian territories that were ceded to Ukraine by Soviet Union authorities in 1991.
Moscow has also expressed strong opposition to Ukraine's plans to join NATO, blaming the transatlantic alliance for alleged military aggression in Eastern Ukraine.
According to The Military Times, the chief of Ukraine's military intelligence stated in November that Russia may attack in January or February.
The deputy chief of Ukraine's military intelligence service, Brigadier General Kyrylo Budanov, was questioned for the study and claimed that Russia may try to seize all of Ukraine's territory up to the Dnieper River, including Kyiv.
But a strike isn't a certain conclusion: Putin might be attempting to put the European Union and NATO allies to the test, as well as increase Russian influence over Ukraine in other ways. According to Budanov, Moscow has already attempted to destabilize Ukraine through COVID-19 protests and stoking unrest through Ukraine's economy and energy supplies.
The Ukraine war is taking place against the backdrop of a number of tensions between Moscow and Washington. On Tuesday, Biden and Putin are expected to address cyber security as well as Moscow's backing for Bashar al-brutal Assad's rule in Syria. Over the previous two years, American businesses have been hit by a slew of ransomware assaults, many of which are thought to have originated in Russia.
A senior US official warned ahead of the talks that if Russia invaded Ukraine, it would send re-enforcements to NATO's eastern flank, as well as harsh new economic sanctions.
Biden and Putin have met multiple times in the past, owing to their extensive political careers. When Biden was Vice President under Barack Obama, they first met at the Kremlin in 2011. The encounter was tense, with Biden later saying that he told Russian President Vladimir Putin, "I don't think you have a soul."
According to Biden, "We understand one another," Putin said.
They recently met in Geneva on June 16 but could not agree on a clear plan to improve relations between their two nations.
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