Ukraine presses for participation in Biden-Putin summit

A top Ukrainian official said on Monday that diplomatic talks between the United States and Russia can only succeed if Kyiv is involved. 

“No one can resolve our issue without us,” Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s top security official, told reporters during a briefing, Reuters reported. “Everything should happen with our participation.”

The White House announced late Sunday night that President Biden had agreed to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “in principle” in the coming days on the condition that Russia does not move forward with an invasion of Ukraine. 

Biden, who last spoke to Putin on Feb. 12, said during an address last week he believed that Putin had already decided to invade Ukraine after weeks of troop buildup and military exercises on the border between the two nations. 

Western nations have warned Moscow could face hash sanctions if Putin pushed ahead with the invasion, but Russian military officials have reportedly already been given orders to invade.

Kremlin officials, meanwhile, have pushed claims that Ukraine is planning an attack of its own, which the U.S. government and officials in Kyiv have denied, saying those statements are being used by the Russian government as a justification to attack.