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US President Joe Biden will on Tuesday deliver remarks on tensions over Ukraine after Russia announced it was pulling back some of the troops deployed on its neighbor’s borders.
The White House said in a statement that Biden would speak at 2030 GMT to “reiterate that the United States remains open to high-level diplomacy in close coordination with our allies.”
“The United States continues to believe diplomacy and de-escalation are the best path forward but is prepared for every scenario,” it added.
Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed earlier Tuesday on the need to verify Russian claims that it was beginning to pull troops back, the French presidency said.
During a phone conversation that lasted around an hour, the two leaders also underlined the importance of remaining “perfectly coordinated” in policy towards Russia under President Vladimir Putin, the Elysee added.
In the first announced withdrawal from among more than 100,000 troops Russia amassed on the Ukrainian border, the defence ministry in Moscow said some soldiers and hardware were returning to bases at the end of planned exercises.
Western leaders had accused Moscow of positioning the troops in advance of a possible invasion of pro-Western Ukraine, warning that any attack would be met with severe economic sanctions.
