December 7, 2021

Face to face for just over two hours, President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin squared off in a secure video call Tuesday as the U.S. president put Moscow on notice that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would bring enormous harm to the Russian economy.

The highly anticipated call between the two leaders came amid growing worries by the U.S. and western allies of a Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Putin came into the meeting seeking guarantees from Biden that the NATO military alliance will never expand to include Ukraine, which has long sought membership. The Americans and their NATO allies said in advance that Putin’s request was a non-starter.

As the U.S. and Russian presidents conferred, Ukrainian officials grew only more anxious about the tens of thousands of Russia troops that have been deployed near their border.

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