Ukraine crisis: Macron, Putin agree to work towards ceasefire, says France; Biden ready to meet Russian prez: Blinken

French president Emmanuel Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Sunday agreed to work for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, Macron’s office said. In a phone conversation lasting 105 minutes, they also agreed on “the need to favour a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis and to do everything to achieve one”, the Elysee said, adding that both countries’ foreign ministers would meet “in the coming days”. Putin blamed Kyiv for a military escalation in east Ukraine in a call with Macron, but said diplomatic efforts to find a resolution needed to intensify. The call came two weeks after Macron went to Moscow to persuade Putin to refrain from sending troops massed on the border into Ukraine. “The Russian president noted that the cause of the escalation is provocations carried out by the Ukrainian security forces,” a Kremlin readout said. Its statement added that the sides discussed the supply of weapons and ammunition by NATO countries to Ukraine, which the Kremlin said was pushing Kyiv towards a “military solution” against separatists in the country’s east. “As a result, civilians… who have to evacuate to Russia to escape the intensifying shelling, suffer,” the Kremlin added. The statement however noted that “the presidents believe it is important to intensify efforts to find solutions through diplomatic means”. It said the leaders agreed these efforts should be carried out by foreign ministers and representatives from France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, which make up the Normandy negotiations group. “Vladimir Putin reiterated the need for the United States and NATO to take Russian demands for security guarantees seriously,” the Kremlin’s readout added. The statement said Putin had told Macron that Western countries should give concrete and point-by-point responses to sweeping demands set by Moscow last December to limit the West’s role in eastern Europe and ex-Soviet countries. Meanwhile, US president Joe Biden is willing to meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin “at any time” to defuse Ukraine war tensions, his top diplomat said Sunday, warning Russia appeared on the verge of invading its neighbour. In a rapid-fire round of US talk shows, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN “everything we’re seeing suggests that this is dead serious, that we are on the brink of an invasion.” “But until the tanks are actually rolling and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from carrying this forward.” Blinken told CBS’s “Face the Nation” Biden has made “very clear that he’s prepared to meet President Putin at any time, in any format, if that can help prevent a war.” With inputs from AFP