Biden concludes call with allies over Ukraine situation

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The White House confirmed that US President Joe Biden concluded Monday a call with his county's "allies and partners to discuss Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine."

Participants of the call included NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, and others, the White House mentioned.

Simultaneously, a five-hour meeting between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine in the Gomel region in Belarus has ended, and both sides identified some priority topics, an advisor to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Mikhail Podolyak, confirmed.

For his part, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, pointed out that the delegations agreed to hold a new round of talks on the Belarusian-Polish border in the next few days.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree "on the application of special economic measures against the United States and countries that have joined them," the Kremlin press service reported.

Western nations have increased defense coordination and sanctions on Russia after Moscow launched a special operation in Ukraine following requests for assistance from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics against intensifying attacks from Ukrainian troops.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that the special operation solely targets the military infrastructure of Ukraine and emphasized that the civilian population is not in danger.

Moscow explained that the purpose of its operation is to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine.