Biden says he will 'make it very, very difficult' for Putin to act against Ukraine

By Servet Gunerigok

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Joe Biden said on Friday he is working on a set of initiatives to "make it very, very difficult" for Russia to carry out a possible military activity against Ukraine.

Speaking at a White House address, Biden said he is in constant contact with the US' allies in Europe through his Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

"And what I am doing is putting together what I believe to be will be the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he may do. That's in play right now," he said.

Biden’s remarks came hours after Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksiy Rezkinov said nearly 94,000 Russian troops were deployed on the Ukrainian border and warned Moscow could trigger a large-scale escalation in January next year.

The US warned Russia on Thursday against any new military aggression towards Ukraine and urged Moscow to fulfill its commitments under the Minsk agreements.

"We are deeply concerned by evidence that Russia has made plans for further significant aggression against Ukraine," Blinken said at the 28th meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Stockholm, Sweden.

Meanwhile, a Russian official on Friday said that an online meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart may take place "in the very next few days".

The two presidents plan to discuss the implementation of the decisions made at the Geneva summit in June this year, bilateral relations, situation in Afghanistan, Iran, Ukraine, Libya and Syria, Yury Ushakov, the presidential advisor on foreign policy issues, told reporters in Moscow.