MOSCOW/PARIS (Dispatches) -- The Kremlin on Monday said there were no concrete plans for a summit over Ukraine between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden, after the French president said the two leaders had agreed on a meeting in principle.
Both Washington and Moscow played down hopes of a breakthrough. Western countries accuse Russia of planning to invade Ukraine. Moscow denies planning any attack but has demanded sweeping security guarantees, including a promise that Ukraine will never join NATO.
After talks in Brussels with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, British foreign minister Liz Truss said Western countries were preparing for a “worst-case scenario”. The airlines Lufthansa, KLM and Air France all cancelled flights to Kyiv.
But the European Union rebuffed a call from Kyiv to impose some sanctions now to try to avert an alleged war before it started.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said a call or meeting between Putin and Biden could be set up at any time, but there were no concrete plans yet for a summit. Tensions were growing, he said, but a foreign ministers’ meeting was possible this week.
Macron’s office and the White House said the substance of the plan would be worked out by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a meeting planned for Thursday.
The White House said Biden had accepted the meeting “in principle” but only “if an invasion hasn’t happened”.
“We are always ready for diplomacy,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. “We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences, should Russia instead choose war.”
Western countries say the sanctions they are preparing would hit Russian companies and individuals. People familiar with the matter said they could include barring U.S. financial institutions from processing transactions for Russian banks.
However, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and some of the assembled national foreign ministers made clear the bloc would not act yet. Borrell said he would convene an extraordinary meeting to agree sanctions only “when the moment comes”.
The crisis has raised worries about the stability of energy supplies to Europe. Germany, which relies on Russia for around half of its natural gas, said its supply was currently “secured”. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited Putin in Moscow last week, was due to speak with him again on Monday, a government spokesperson said.
Sporadic shelling across the line dividing government forces from the pro-Russian insurgents has intensified since Thursday, with both sides trading blame.
The rebels said two civilians were killed in shelling by Ukrainian government forces, Russia’s RIA news agency said. Russian media reported 61,000 evacuees from east Ukraine had crossed into Russia.