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Biden faces high-stakes test in call with Putin over Ukraine
CNN
President Joe Biden is set for one of the most critical calls of his presidency on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he gets stark warnings from the US intelligence community that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine as soon as next month.
Amid "deep concern" about Russia's planning for "significant military action against Ukraine," the President will not entertain any of Putin's "red lines" on NATO expansion in Eastern Europe and will make clear that the US is prepared to respond to an invasion with sanctions and -- if needed -- additional troops in Europe to reassure nervous allies, a senior administration official told reporters on Monday.
The call comes nearly six months after Biden met Putin for the first time as president in Geneva, Switzerland, when he hoped to calm tensions by finding areas where the US and Russia could cooperate like cybersecurity and strategic arms control. The two men have a long history, and Biden has said explicitly he does not hold Putin in particularly high regard.
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Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.