Biden To Speak with Putin Saturday Morning, as White House War Knights Rattle Their Sabers

Feb. 11, 2022 (EIRNS)—President Joe Biden will be speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday morning, Feb. 12, the White House said today. The Kremlin said Biden had requested the call, according to the Washington Post, which reported that U.S. officials said the Russians proposed it occur on Monday, Feb. 14, but accepted Biden’s Saturday counterproposal.

It was announced in a briefing to reporters by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who claimed that there is a “distinct possibility” that Russia will invade Ukraine in a “very swift time frame,” and called on Americans to leave Ukraine “as soon as possible ... in any event, within the next 24 to 48 hours.”

Sullivan said, “There will be no opportunity to leave and no prospect of a U.S. military evacuation in the event of a rush invasion.” An attack, he said, would “likely begin” with aerial bombing and missile strikes, and “no one would be able to count on rail or air or road departures.”

Biden held a call early today with his counterparts in Canada, the U.K. and other NATO partners to further coordinate “diplomacy and deterrence,” the White House said. NATO ambassadors also convened in Brussels to discuss the continued Russian buildup, a U.S. official said.

Also today, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley spoke to his Russian counterpart, Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov by phone. The two “discussed several security-related issues of concern,” but as with previous calls between them, they “agreed to keep the specific details of their conversation private,” a Milley spokesperson said. Milley also spoke with counterparts from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom, as well as with the head of the NATO Military Committee, on “adjustment of the U.S. force posture in Europe.”