Biden to call Ukraine leader amid Russia standoff

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will call Ukraine’s leader on Thursday in a show of support, after warning Vladimir Putin of sanctions "like none he’s ever seen" if Russian troops attack Ukraine.

Biden’s warning came a day after he and Putin talked for two hours and the US leader said his Russian counterpart got the message. After talking to Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden will call nine Eastern European Nato members, including Poland and the Baltic states, to discuss the video conference with Putin.

"I made it very clear if in fact he invades Ukraine there will be severe consequences, severe consequences -- economic consequences like none he’s ever seen or ever have been seen," Biden told reporters at the White House. But sending US troops to confront Russia was "not on the table".

Zelensky has said it is "positive" the US and Russian leaders spoke directly. "Ukraine’s victory lies in the fact that the United States has always supported Ukraine, our sovereignty and independence," the Ukrainian leader said after the Putin-Biden call.

Ukrainian officials said Zelensky’s call with Biden was expected at around 1730 GMT. Western European countries added to the diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin following the Biden-Putin talks.

Among them, new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned of "consequences" for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a controversial Russian project to deliver natural gas to Germany.

Putin justified Russia’s movement of up to 100,000 troops to the border of Ukraine over the past few weeks as a defensive measure, with the Kremlin expressing fears that Nato is pulling ex-Soviet Ukraine into its sphere. The troop surge follows a similar build-up in the spring.

Putin refused to say on Wednesday if he planned to invade Ukraine, insisting that Moscow had "the right to defend its security" in the face of perceived Nato expansion. During the talks with Biden, the Russian leader demanded that the West provide legal guarantees Nato will halt its eastward expansion. On Thursday, Moscow’s foreign ministry said Russian diplomats had begun working on follow-ups in the wake the summit, without providing details.