Biden will talk to Putin ‘if he leaves Ukraine’

President will engage with Kremlin with the help of allies and if it agrees to pull troops out of Ukraine

Joe Biden has said he is prepared to sit down with Vladimir Putin if he agrees to pull out of Ukraine and end the war. Speaking at the White House last night after talks with Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart, Mr Biden said he would only conduct peace talks in consultation with Nato. Asked if a Russian withdrawal from Crimea should be a condition for negotiations, Mr Biden said: “There’s one way for this war to end – the rational way: Putin to pull out of Ukraine.”

JOE BIDEN has said he is prepared to sit down with Vladimir Putin if he agrees to pull out of Ukraine and end the war.

Speaking at a White House news conference last night after talks with Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart, Mr Biden said he would only conduct peace talks in consultation with his Nato allies.

Asked if a Russian withdrawal from Crimea should be a condition for negotiations, Mr Biden said: “There’s one way for this war to end – the rational way. Putin to pull out of Ukraine, number one. But it appears that he’s not going to do that. He’s paying a very high price for failing to do it.”

Mr Biden added: “I am prepared to speak with Mr Putin if there is interest in him deciding he’s looking for a way to end the war. He hasn’t done that yet.

“If that’s the case, in consultation with my French and my Nato friends, I’ll be happy to sit down with Putin and see what he has in mind.”

Mr Biden later added: “He [Mr Putin] has miscalculated across the board. The

‘He has miscalculated across the board. So how does he get out of the circumstance he is in?’

question is how does he get out of the circumstance he is in? I’m prepared if he’s willing to talk to find out what he’s willing to do. But I’m not going to do it on my own.”

Mr Biden made the comments as Mr Macron urged allies to stop demanding that Mr Putin step down as a precondition for talks with Russia, which put him at odds with Ukraine.

The French president, on a state visit to Washington, said he plans to speak to Mr Putin “in the coming days” after his discussions with Mr Biden.

Mr Macron, unlike other Western leaders, has engaged with Mr Putin many times since the invasion.

He said: “My conviction and my pragmatic approach is to say, I have to engage with the existing leaders and the one in charge of the country.

“Because if we do believe in national sovereignty, we cannot decide to say that a precondition is regime change to start negotiating.”

As to whether Mr Putin could be a faithful and reliable participant in peace negotiations, the French leader suggested the verdict was still out.

He said: “If I had the answer, I’d be around the negotiating table with him.”

But he made clear that he believed “a good peace is not a peace that will be imposed on the Ukrainians by others.”

Mr Macron has tried to position himself as a negotiator on the world stage, boosting his credentials at home.

In doing so he has also sought European autonomy from Washington, Kyiv’s biggest backer in the conflict.

Mr Macron’s overtures and his regular contacts with Mr Putin have underscored a split between France and more hardline supporters of Ukraine, including the UK, Poland and the Baltic states.

The French president yesterday expressed his optimism over Ukraine’s progress in resisting Moscow’s troops but cautioned that a long and difficult war lay ahead.

He said: “Ukraine is clearly having a very positive counteroffensive, (but) saying they are winning the war is probably too early.”

He said a “sustainable” peace that ends the conflict could be hammered out. “I think it’s still possible” to return to negotiations, he told ABC News.

Meanwhile, CNN reported Mr Biden is considering an expansion in the training the US military provides to Ukrainian forces, including instructing up to 2,500 soldiers a month in Germany.

The drills would cover more sophisticated battlefield tactics including how to co-ordinate military manoeuvres with artillery support.

The US was also considering sending Patriot air defence systems, in what would be yet another threshold crossed by the White House.