Berlin (dpa) – US President Joe Biden conducted a videoconference with European allies following his inconclusive summit with Putin, a German government spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Biden briefed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson late on Tuesday, according to Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s spokesperson.
The Europeans underlined “their full support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” during that meeting, Seibert said.
All participants stressed “the need for Russia to reduce tensions and seek a diplomatic solution, including through the Normandy format for implementing the Minsk agreements,” he added, referring to Ukraine peace efforts mediated by France and Germany.
Biden and Putin conducted an online summit on Tuesday to discuss the Ukraine conflict, as both sides trade accusations of military provocations.
There were no breakthroughs at the summit, which was scheduled to run for several hours, but ended after only about two.
“I think that this situation satisfies neither us nor the Americans,” Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said on Wednesday, according to the Interfax agency.
Relations between the two world powers are a cause for concern, Ushakov was quoted as saying, although the two rivals are said to be willing to work on reducing tensions.
The United States has been accusing Russia for weeks now of deploying troops not far from the border with Ukraine, as fears grow in the West of a possible Russian invasion.
Russia rejects the claims and accuses Ukraine of having moved more than 120,000 soldiers towards the eastern Donbas region, where pro-Russian separatists have been battling for control since 2014.
