The White House provided a measured account on the evening of Dec. 9 of their “larger diplomatic outreach with President Putin, European allies and Ukraine.” An unnamed “Senior Administration Official” provided a 20-minute briefing focusing upon President Biden’s Dec. 9 phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and also the Bucharest 9, the nine newer members of NATO, referred to as “our group of eastern flank allies.” After telling Zelenskyy that one pathway involving a Russian invasion of Ukraine would see the West hit Russia with “strong economic measures” along with “additional defensive matériel to Ukraine,” Biden described the other pathway of “de-escalation and diplomacy,” meaning the Normandy Format “and ongoing efforts to implement the Minsk Agreements, including U.S. support for that overall process.” Kiev has been able to rely, since 2015, upon the U.S. not pushing them to take those agreements seriously. [https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/12/09/background-press-call-by-a-senior-administration-official-on-president-bidens-calls-with-president-zelenskyy-of-ukraine-and-european-leaders/’
The senior official emphasized how much consultation there had been with all Western parties, and volunteered that the press has been wrong in suggesting that Biden made concessions to Putin. “There very clearly were not… Biden has… made very clear that one nation can’t force another nation to change its border, one nation cannot tell another to change its politics, and nations can’t tell others who they can work with.” (Strangely, there was no laughter on that final point.) The official further stated that Biden reassured the Bucharest 9 of the U.S.’s “sacred commitment … to Article 5, to transatlantic security, to NATO, and especially to our eastern flank allies,” but then reiterated the “de-escalation and diplomacy” path.
In the question-answer period, the official was asked whether, given Biden’s stress upon corruption at the Summit for Democracy, did this matter of corruption in Ukraine come up with Zelenskyy? The senior official responded that Biden did raise the matter of “democratic resilience in democratic institutions” with Zelenskyy, and that Ukraine has made “significant progress,” but there’s “a recognition of continued steps that they need to make.”
TASS’s coverage featured the senior official’s response to the first question, about direct engagement with Russia on Putin’s concerns: “In terms of follow-up, this is something that we are actively discussing with our partners. That was the purpose of the conversations that have been happening at NATO, with our Western European partners and then with the Eastern European partners today.… There are existing formats, including the NATO-Russia Council, where there is a longstanding invitation to the Russians to participate in talks. That invitation very much remains open. And we will continue working through ways to continue engaging diplomatically on this full range of issues.…
“So, I think within the next couple of days, we’re obviously going to continue talking with our European partners, we’re going to continue talking with our Russian partners, and finding a way forward.... And the one thing that I want to make clear … is that we are always prepared to talk about security issues with Russia.” The official said that “a large number of formats exist to be able to do that,” citing the NATO-Russia Council and the OSCE. “And so, we are, of course, prepared to talk to the Russians about this, this full set of issues.”
