Biden warns Putin Ukraine attack would bring ‘severe costs’

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Efforts to defuse the crisis in Ukraine via a frenzy of telephone diplomacy failed to ease tensions on Saturday, with US President Joe Biden warning that Russia faces “swift and severe costs” if its troops carry out an invasion.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin slammed Western claims that Moscow was planning such a move as “provocative speculation” that could lead to conflict in the ex-Soviet country, according to a Russian readout of a call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Speaking after new phone talks between Putin and Biden, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov told a conference call: “Hysteria has reached its peak.”

Weeks of tensions that have seen Russia nearly surround its western neighbor with more than 100,000 troops intensified after Washington warned that an all-out invasion could begin “any day” and Russia launched its biggest naval drills in years across the Black Sea.

“If Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States together with our allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia,” Biden told Putin, according to the White House.