President Biden held video talks with President Putin amid Western fears that Moscow is planning to attack Ukraine CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGESJoe Biden struck an uncompromising tone with Vladimir Putin yesterday, warning the Russian president that America and its allies would respond with “strong economic and other measures” to any military escalation in Ukraine. This was the right message. At stake in what has become the gravest foreign policy test of Mr Biden’s presidency after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan is not only the fate of Ukraine, which could face imminent invasion from Russian troops on its borders. Also at stake is wider European security, which would be profoundly destabilised by a war that would lead to the inevitable displacement of millions of Ukrainians. More broadly, a Russian attack on Ukraine would spell the end of the postwar rules-based system, marking a return to an

Source: The Times December 08, 2021 01:29 UTC