President Joe Biden held a 50-minute telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the 13th of February 2022 for the third time this year. The presidents discussed the current situation threatened by a Russian invasion. The call came a day after President Biden’s 62-minute telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Foreign media reported that in the telephone conversation, Zelensky invited President Biden to visit Ukraine as a sign of strong U.S. support for Ukraine. “I am sure that if President Biden visits [Ukraine] in the coming days, it will send a strong signal and help stabilize the situation in Ukraine,” It is reported that The White House did not comment on the invitation made by President Zelensky. The White House reported that President Biden reaffirmed to President Volodymyr Zelensky that the United States is committed to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. “President Biden has made clear that the United States, along with its allies and partners, will respond quickly and decisively if Russia attacks Ukraine.”
Earlier in a telephone conversation with Putin, Biden said he was ready to solve the problem through diplomacy, while strongly warning that Russia would pay heavy consequences for a strong response if it did invade Ukraine.
Tensions between the two sides persist as Biden and Putin have been unable to find a way to ease tensions.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also appeared on CNN the same day, reaffirming an earlier notion that Russia could invade Ukraine at any moment, but indirectly showed that the US-Russian phone call the previous day was useless.
The US called on its citizens to evacuate within 48 hours on the 11th of February 2022. The day before both the US and Russia ordered the recall of some of their embassy staff in Ukraine, the atmosphere of war is heating up.