Biden and Putin set for video call on Ukraine

MOSCOW — Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will speak in a video call on Tuesday as tensions between the United States and Russia escalate over a Russian troop buildup on the Ukrainian border that is seen as a sign of a potential invasion.

A Kremlin spokesman confirmed plans for the conversation to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti. “The presidents will decide themselves” how long their talk will last, he said Saturday. The White House did not comment on the announcement.

The last known call between the leaders was in July, when Biden pressed Putin to rein in Russian-based criminal hacking gangs launching ransomware attacks against the United States. Biden said the U.S. would take any necessary steps to protect critical infrastructure from any such attacks. Ransomware attacks have continued since then, though perhaps none has been as alarming as the one in May that targeted a major fuel pipeline and resulted in days of gas shortages in parts of the U.S.

Russia is more adamant than ever that the U.S. guarantees that Ukraine will not be admitted to the NATO military alliance. But NATO’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said this week that Russia has no say in expansion plans by other countries or the alliance. Numerous former U.S. and NATO diplomats say any such Russian demand to Biden would be a non-starter.

U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia has massed about 70,000 troops near its border with Ukraine and has begun planning for a possible invasion as soon as early next year, according to a Biden administration official.

The risks for Putin of going through with such an invasion would be enormous. U.S. officials and former American diplomats say while the Russian president is clearly laying the groundwork for a possible invasion, Ukraine’s military is better armed and prepared today than in the past, and that sanctions threatened by the West would do serious damage to the Russian economy.