'This is a crisis of the Kremlin's making': Biden and Putin speak regarding the tensions of Ukraine

January 4, 2022: -On Thursday, President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone as tensions rise for a significant military buildup on the Ukrainian border.

The call started at 3:35 p.m. ET and lasted 50 minutes, the White House said.

The call, the second known discussion amid the two leaders this month, was scheduled at Putin’s request. The Russian president has previously insisted that Moscow is not preparing for an invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbor

 despite a massive deployment of thousands of troops along Ukraine’s border.

Since 2002, Ukraine has sought entry into the world’s most powerful military alliance, where the Article 5 clause of the group states that an attack on one member country is considered an attack on all of them.

During the previous call in this month, Biden did not accept Putin’s “red line” and instead gave a warning that Washington and European allies were prepared to impose a web of economic and political countermeasures if Ukraine’s sovereign borders were breached.

U.S. President Joe Biden holds virtual talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin between Western fears that Moscow is planning to attack Ukraine, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens with different officials during a secure video call from the Situation Roo

U.S. President Joe Biden holds virtual talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin between Western fears that Moscow plans to attack Ukraine, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens with different officials in a secure video call from the Situation Room at the White House in Washington, U.S.

“We are prepared for diplomacy and a diplomatic path forward, but we are also prepared to respond if Russia advances with a new invasion of Ukraine,” a senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details ahead of the call, said on Wednesday.

“We have coordinated with our allies to impose few sanctions on the Russian economy and financial system far beyond what was implemented in 2014,” the official said, which refers to Moscow’s 2014 invasion of Crimea.

For months, Ukraine also gave a warning to the United States and European allies that thousands of Russian troops were massing along its eastern border. The buildup has evoked shades of Russia’s annexation of Crimea of 2014, a peninsula on the Black Sea, sparking an international uproar and triggering a series of sanctions on Moscow.