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U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle to a summit over Ukraine, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said, provided Russia does not invade its neighbor. In a statement released early Monday, the Elysee Palace said Macron had pitched both leaders on a summit over "security and strategic stability in Europe."
"Presidents Biden and Putin have both accepted the principle of such a summit," the statement said, before adding that such a meeting would be impossible if Russia invaded Ukraine as Western nations fear it plans to. The White House did not immediately return a message seeking comment. The announcement - released after a volley of phone calls between Macron and leaders on both sides of the Atlantic - comes after a week of heightened tensions spurred by Russia's military buildup up and down the Ukrainian border.
Nerves were further frayed after the Belarusian defence ministry announced that Russia would extend military drills in Belarus that were due to end on Sunday. Satellite images appeared to show new deployments of Russian armor and troops close to Ukraine. The White House said Biden was canceling a trip to Delaware and remaining in Washington following a two-hour meeting of his National Security Council.
U.S.-based satellite imagery company Maxar reported multiple new deployments of Russian military units in forests, farms, and industrial areas as little as 15 km (9 miles) from the border with Ukraine - something Maxar said represented a change from what had been seen in recent weeks.
"Until recently, most of the deployments had been seen primarily positioned at or near existing military garrisons and training areas," the company said. Blinken told CNN "everything we are seeing suggests that this is dead serious," adding the West was equally prepared if Moscow invades. "Until the tanks are actually rolling, and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from carrying this forward."
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Ukraine said on Monday about 10 airlines had stopped flying there amid U.S. warnings of an attack by Russian forces massed on its border, but insisted its air corridors were still open and flying to the East European country was safe.
Germany's Lufthansa said it was halting flights to Ukraine from Monday, joining KLM which has already done so. Scandinavian airline SAS also suspended weekly flights while Air France has decided to cancel Tuesday flights between Paris and Kyiv as a "precautionary measure".
"The current cancellation of flights by a number of foreign airlines is dictated solely by the information aggravation of the situation, and not by real changes in flight safety," Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov told a news briefing. (Reuters)
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday he had asked member states of the U.N. Security Council to hold urgent discussions on practical steps to guarantee his country's security and on de-escalating the tensions with Russia.
Russia is a permanent veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council. Russia's President Vladimir Putin said earlier on Monday that he would make a decision on recognising two breakaway regions in East Ukraine later on Monday. (Reuters)
Global stocks hit three-week lows and oil rose on Monday as worries increased that Russia will invade Ukraine. Russian forces killed a group of five saboteurs who breached the country's southwest border from Ukraine on Monday, news agencies quoted the military as saying, an accusation that Kyiv dismissed as the latest in a series of fakes.
Kyiv and the West fear that a border incident near eastern Ukraine could be used as a pretext for Moscow to attack its neighbour. Russia denies such plans. Markets are on high alert for any escalation in the crisis.
MSCI's world equity index fell 0.4% to 700.11, with Monday's public holiday in the United States, which will keep Wall Street closed, thinning trade and adding to the volatility. S&P 500 stock futures fell 0.66%. Nasdaq futures dropped 1.2%.
European stocks dropped 1.65% to their lowest in more than four months. British stocks fell 0.5%. Shares in companies exposed to Russia and Ukraine fell heavily. U.S. stock futures and European stocks lost earlier gains made on news that U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed in principle to hold a summit on the Ukraine crisis.
Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron had told him Ukraine's leadership was ready to implement the Minsk peace process and was working on fresh ideas to hold elections in two breakaway regions.
In televised remarks, Putin was responding to an assessment from his special envoy on Ukraine, Dmitry Kozak, who said he believed Kyiv would never implement the peace agreements as things stand. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday told his security council it was necessary to consider an appeal from the leaders of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine for Russia to recognise them as independent.Putin said in televised remarks that the threat to Russia would substantially increase if Ukraine were to join NATO.
The rebel leaders of east Ukraine's two self-proclaimed republics asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognise the independence of their breakaway territories in a coordinated appeal on Monday."I ask you to recognise the sovereignty and independence of the Lugansk People's Republic," separatist Leonid Pasechnik said in a video aired on Russian state television. Denis Pushilin, the rebel head of the Donetsk People's Republic, made a similar appeal.
Ukraine on Monday firmly denied Russian claims that Russian forces had killed five Ukrainian "saboteurs" who allegedly crossed the border to stage an attack, heightening fears of an all-out war."Not a single one of our soldiers has crossed the border with the Russian Federation, and not a single one has been killed today," Anton Gerashchenko, an official at Ukraine's interior ministry, told reporters.
Russian stocks fell around 10 percent on Monday as the Ukraine crisis escalated sharply, with Moscow announcing it had killed Ukrainian "saboteurs" on its territory and dampened hopes for a summit with Washington.At the Moscow Stock Exchange, the dollar-denominated RTS index was down 10.4 percent at around 1130 GMT and the IMoex (in rubles) fell 8 percent.
The Russian military said Monday that it had killed five "saboteurs" who crossed from Ukrainian territory, the latest claim fuelling tensions along Moscow's border with Ukraine."As a result of clashes, five people who violated the Russian border from a group of saboteurs were killed," the military said in a statement, adding the incident occurred near the village of Mityakinskaya in the Rostov region at 06:00 am (0300 GMT).
Nickel surged Monday to the highest price in more than 10 years, driven by simmering Ukraine-Russia tensions and tight supplies.The industrial metal forged $24,610 per tonne -- the highest level since 2011 -- in late morning deals on the London Metal Exchange. Marex broker Al Munro said nickel was "benefitting from the threat to Russian production" in an already tight market with demand up as economies reopen from pandemic lockdowns.The price of the industrial metal, a key raw material in the manufacturing of stainless steel, has soared by nearly 20 percent since the start of the year."The Ukraine crisis continues to hang over metals prices," said Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann.
Ukraine's foreign minister on Monday said the European Union had agreed "in principle" to set up an advisory military instructor mission in Ukraine, but the details have yet to be thrashed out. The announcement comes as the West warns Russia could be gearing up to invade Ukraine after massing an estimated 150,000 troops at its border."We reached an agreement with the EU in principle that the European Union will roll out an advisory training military mission in Ukraine. These are not combat forces," Dmytro Kuleba told journalists after meeting EU counterparts in Brussels."The details, the main parameters and the timeline of this rollout are still to be discussed, but it's critical that we open this new page in our relations."EU diplomats said the ministers' meeting in Brussels was expected to give the green light for the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to put forward a formal proposal for the mission.Diplomats said the mission would likely begin as classroom-based courses to help improve Ukrainian officers. It is expected to take at least six months to be set up, and it is not yet clear if EU military or civilian personnel would be involved.
