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Live Updates: Biden-Putin Talks and Ukraine Crisis News

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ImageThe Ukrainian Army on Friday at the front line in Zaitseve, in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Credit…Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

MOSCOW — A day after President Biden warned President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that the costs of an attack on Ukraine would be severe, there was no indication that tensions were easing. Foreign embassies continued to withdraw nonessential staff, nations urged their citizens to leave the country and the Russian military buildup in the region showed no signs of slowing.

While President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine urged calm and Russia continued to deny that it is planning to invade its neighbor, weeks of frenzied diplomacy showed little sign of progress.

Still, efforts to defuse the crisis are continuing, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany planning to travel to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, on Monday and Moscow on Tuesday.

“It is our job to ensure that we prevent a war in Europe, in that we send a clear message to Russia that any military aggression would have consequences that would be very high for Russia and its prospects, and that we are united with our allies,” Mr. Scholz told the upper house of the Bundestag, Germany’s Parliament, on Friday.

Berlin is viewed with skepticism by many in Ukraine for not providing military weapons to aid in its defense as other NATO allies have. Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany complained on Sunday about “German hypocrisy” on Twitter, noting that Berlin sells materials to Russia that can increase weapons production.

Last week, Mr. Scholz traveled to Washington, where he met President Biden in a key attempt to shore up the alliance between the United States and Europe’s most powerful economy. Mr. Biden vowed that a lucrative gas pipeline project connecting Russia and Germany, Nord Stream 2, would be halted if Moscow invades Ukraine.

Mr. Scholz has not explicitly said the pipeline will be canceled in the event of an invasion, but Mr. Biden said the two countries were crafting their policies “in lock step.”

Mr. Scholz’s Social Democratic Party has historically favored strong ties between Germany and Russia and has struggled to develop a coherent stance in dealing with Mr. Putin.

So Mr. Scholz’s visit to the region will be closely watched for indications of whether he is willing to take a harder line with the Kremlin.

Ben Wallace, the United Kingdom’s defense secretary, criticized Western efforts at reaching a diplomatic solution with Russia as “appeasement” in an interview with the Sunday Times on Saturday.

Western officials estimate that Russia has massed more than 130,000 troops on Ukraine’s northern, southern and eastern borders, which Mr. Wallace said was enough to “launch an offensive at any time,” something he said was “highly likely.”

He compared the situation with the prelude to the Second World War, when Western powers ceded territory to Germany in the hopes of avoiding conflict.

He said that while it is possible that Mr. Putin just “switches off his tanks,” bringing the crisis to an end, “there is a whiff of Munich in the air from some in the West.”

Though he did not name any countries in particular, it was a loaded reference to the diplomatic acceptance of Hitler’s seizing of territory outside Germany before the outbreak of World War II.

While the menacing military buildup around Ukraine has been roundly criticized by most Western governments, Mr. Putin has found support in some other autocratic leaders.

Brazil’s populist president Jair Bolsonaro is expected to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday, the same day as Mr. Scholz, for a meeting with Mr. Putin. The visit is seen as part of Mr. Putin’s attempt to shore up his alliances with Latin American countries that have traditionally been close to the United States.

Mr. Bolsonaro, whose approval rating is at a low ahead of elections this year, said Saturday that he did not intend to raise the issue of a potential escalation of Russia’s war with Ukraine.

“We ask God that peace reign in the world, for the good of all of us,” he said in a radio interview.



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