US not ruling out Biden-Putin meeting, no current engagement
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Despite Russia and Ukraine holding talks on the Ukraine crisis, Washington reveals that Biden and Putin will not be meeting in the near future.
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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, United States.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki did not eliminate the probability of a potential meeting between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the future, though she did say Washington had no plans for direct engagement between the two.
Psaki responded to a question about the possibility of Biden sitting down with Putin in person while Moscow is engaged in the special operation in Ukraine by saying she could not "make an assessment of that."
However, she did not miss out on the opportunity of demonizing Russia, accusing them of "invading a sovereign country and continuing to escalate every day."
"We're never going to take diplomacy ever off the table. But again, knows that not the moment for that," she asserted.
Asked why the United States does not rule out such a meeting, Psaki said Washington had internal discussions "about what the best steps are to de-escalate," but now is not the moment to plan an engagement between the two leaders.
Despite the US not holding talks with Moscow, Russia and Ukraine's delegations to the talks in Belarus have reached an understanding on humanitarian corridors and a ceasefire during evacuations, an adviser to the head of Zelensky's office said Thursday.
"The parties have reached an understanding on the joint provision of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of the civilian population," and medicine and foodstuff delivery to areas of tense clashes, adviser Mikhail Podolyak added.
The Russian-Ukrainian negotiations began in Belarus on Monday, after the Ukrainian delegation arrived Sunday in Gomel, Belarus.
Russia had launched a special operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine in response to requests from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics for assistance in combating Ukrainian troops' aggression.
