Biden-Putin talks on Ukraine seen rooted in older dispute

WASHINGTON — The Cold War ended 30 years ago this month, but one unresolved issue — how closely Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, can ally with the West — is now creating some of the deepest U.S.-Russian tensions in years.

The dispute over Ukraine’s status and its growing alignment with U.S.-led NATO will be at the center of President Vladimir Putin’s video meeting today with President Joe Biden, whose administration says an extensive Russian military buildup near Ukraine points to a potential invasion.

Russia denies any intention of invading and claims Washington and Kyiv are the ones stirring up trouble.

Putin has his own demands: a binding assurance that Ukraine will not join NATO and that the Western alliance will not add forces in states near Russia.

“I want to make it crystal clear: Turning our neighbors into a bridgehead for confrontation with Russia, the deployment of NATO forces in the regions strategically important for our security, is categorically unacceptable,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week, echoing Putin.

That demand is a nonstarter for Biden.

A key principle of the NATO alliance is that membership is open to any qualifying country. And no outsider has membership veto power.

While there’s little prospect that Ukraine would be invited into the alliance anytime soon, the U.S. and its allies won’t rule it out.

“NATO member countries decide who is a member of NATO, not Russia. And that is how the process has always been and how it will proceed,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.

Ahead of his Putin meeting, Biden was consulting by phone Monday with European allies France, Germany, Britain and Italy to coordinate messaging and potential economic sanctions against Russia in response to the Ukraine situation.

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter that he had coordinated positions with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“Agreed to continue joint & concerted action,” Zelenskyy wrote, saying he was grateful for the “continued support of our sovereignty & territorial integrity.”

Blinken last week said the U.S. would work with allies to impose “severe costs and consequences” on Russia if it attacks.

Biden said Friday that he has developed with allies the “most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin” to invade. That signals significant U.S. and allied economic and financial sanctions against Moscow.

The administration also has been considering providing additional defensive weaponry to Ukraine, though Biden has given no indication he would respond to an incursion with direct U.S. military force. Because Ukraine is not a NATO member, the United States has no treaty obligation to defend it.

Putin’s grievances with the West are long-standing and go beyond the Ukraine question. They date to the early post-Cold War years when Russia felt humiliated by the collapse of its economy and its loss of global clout. After Washington began a global war on terrorism, Putin lashed out at what he saw as American arrogance.

“One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way,” he asserted at an international conference in Munich in 2007. “This is visible in the economic, political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other nations. Well, who likes this?”

Russia has since rebuilt its military and become more assertive in the Middle East and in Ukraine.

Ukraine has deep historical and cultural ties to Russia, and Putin has repeatedly asserted that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people.” He has said that large chunks of Ukrainian territory are historic parts of Russia that were arbitrarily granted to Ukraine by Communist leaders under the Soviet Union.

As Putin has drawn a line on the eastward expansion of NATO, Ukraine’s leader is promising a tough response to any test. Zelenskyy said his country’s military is a “highly capable and highly organized force that is confident in its potential and is able to derail any expansionist plans by the enemy.”