12th February, 2022
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak on Saturday, a White House official said, as tension continues to rise over Ukraine.
The idea of the telephone conversation comes after Washington said on Friday that Russia has massed enough troops near Ukraine to launch a major invasion.
“They will be speaking Saturday morning. Russia proposed a call Monday. We counter-proposed Saturday, and they accepted,” the official told Reuters.
The discussion also comes after U.S. decision to send 3,000 additional troops to Poland in the coming days to try to reassure NATO allies.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the U.S. troop deployment will come from the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and not from within U.S. forces in Europe.
They are expected to be in Poland by next week, they said.
One of the officials described it as a significant deployment.
Another official said the deployment order was signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the direction of President Joe Biden.
They are in addition to the 8,500 troops already on alert to be ready to deploy to Europe if needed and the nearly 3,000 American troops the administration said earlier this month it would deploy to Poland and Romania.
Russia meanwhile held military exercises in Belarus and the Black Sea following the buildup of its forces near Ukraine.
Commercial satellite images published by a private U.S. company showed new Russian military deployments at several locations near Ukraine.