Biden and Putin plan high-stakes phone call in bid to resolve Ukraine crisis
Russian president Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Joe Biden are to hold a high-stakes telephone call as tensions escalate over a potentially imminent invasion of Ukraine.
The move came as the US announced plans to evacuate its embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Before talking to Mr Biden on Saturday, the Russian leader will share a call with French president Emmanuel Macron, who met with him in Moscow earlier in the week in a bid to resolve the crisis.
Russia has massed troops near the Ukraine border and has sent personnel to military exercises in neighbouring Belarus, but insistently denies that it intends to launch an offensive against Ukraine.
Adding to the sense of crisis, the Pentagon has ordered an additional 3,000 US troops to Poland to reassure allies.
Mr Biden has said the US military will not enter a war in Ukraine, but he has promised severe economic sanctions against Moscow, in concert with international allies.
The timing of any possible Russian military action remains a key question.
American officials said that Russia’s build-up of offensive air, land and sea firepower near Ukraine has reached the point where it could invade on short notice.
US officials told The Associated Press that the US state department plans to announce on Saturday that virtually all American staff at the Kyiv embassy will be required to leave, although the state department would not comment.
The department had earlier ordered families of US embassy staffers in Kyiv to leave, but it had left it to the discretion of non-essential personnel if they wanted to depart.
Mr Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, urged all Americans in Ukraine to leave, emphasising that they should not expect the US military to rescue them in the event that air and rail transportation is severed after a Russian invasion.
Watch: Where will UK forces be sent to boost eastern European security?
The UK Foreign Office updated its advice on Friday evening to urge British nationals to "leave now while commercial means are still available".
Several NATO allies including Canada, Norway and Denmark also are asking their citizens to leave Ukraine, as is non-NATO ally New Zealand.
Mr Sullivan said Russian military action could start with missile and air attacks, followed by a ground offensive.
"Yes, it is an urgent message because we are in an urgent situation," he told reporters at the White House.
"Russia has all the forces it needs to conduct a major military action," Mr Sullivan said, adding, "Russia could choose, in very short order, to commence a major military action against Ukraine."
He said the scale of such an invasion could range from a limited incursion to a strike on Kyiv, the capital.
Russian officials scoffed at the American claims. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "The hysteria of the White House is more indicative than ever.
"The Anglo-Saxons need a war. At any cost. Provocations, misinformation and threats are a favourite method of solving their own problems."
In addition to the more than 100,000 ground troops that US officials say Russia has assembled along Ukraine’s eastern and southern borders, the Russians have deployed missile, air, naval and special operations forces, as well as supplies to sustain a war.
This week, Russia moved six amphibious assault ships into the Black Sea, augmenting its capability to land marines on the coast.
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