Biden ratchets up heat on Putin in fresh call

US President Joe Biden speaks on the phone with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, as he spends the weekend at the US presidential retreat at Camp David, in this official photo released after the call took place in Thurmont, Maryland, yesterday. (Reuters)

• US president warns counterpart of ‘swift and severe costs’ Efforts to defuse the crisis in Ukraine via a frenzy of telephone diplomacy failed to ease tensions yesterday, with the White House insisting that Russia faces “swift and severe costs” if its troops carry out an invasion. Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed Western claims that such a move might be on the horizon, calling the idea “provocative speculation” that could lead to a conflict in the ex-Soviet country, according to a Russian readout of a call with French President Emmanuel Macron. Weeks of tensions that have seen Russia nearly surround its western neighbour with more than 100,000 troops intensified after Washington warned that an all-out invasion could begin “any day” and Russia launched its biggest naval drills in years across the Black Sea. “If Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States together with our Allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia,” US President Joe Biden told Putin, according to the White House. While the United States was prepared to engage in diplomacy, “we are equally prepared for other scenarios”, Biden said, as the two nations stare down one of the gravest crises in East-West relations since the Cold War. While the Biden-Putin talks were “professional and substantive”, lasting just over an hour, they produced “no fundamental change” in dynamics, a senior US official told reporters. Russia’s defence ministry added to the febrile atmosphere by announcing that it had chased off a US submarine that it alleged had crossed into its territorial waters near the Kuril Islands in the northern Pacific. The ministry said it had summoned the US defence attache in Moscow over the incident, while the Pentagon said only that it was aware of press reports. Putin began his afternoon by holding talks with Macron that the French presidency said lasted one hour and 40 minutes. Macron’s office said “both expressed a desire to continue dialogue” but, like Washington, reported no clear progress. Russia yesterday added to the ominous tone by pulling some of its diplomatic staff out of Ukraine. The foreign ministry in Moscow said its decision was prompted by fears of “possible provocations from the Kyiv regime”.