Putin’s expected Nato demand

With Russian troops massed along the border with Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin is expected to issue President Joe Biden an ultimatum during their video meeting today: Guarantee that Nato will never expand into Ukraine, or Russia might soon launch an offensive against its neighbour.

The Kremlin has said it wants written guarantees from the United States and its allies in Nato that the military alliance will not expand east – both in terms of membership and Western forces.

The video call comes during an unprecedented low point in US-Russia relations, especially over Ukraine. The White House has threatened Russia with ‘‘serious consequences’’ – believed to be sanctions that would cut the country off from the global financial system – if it pursues military action against Ukraine.

Putin plans to outline Russia’s proposals to Biden, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday, and their talks are expected ‘‘to be quite long and substantive.’’

After ameeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Stockholm last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he did not even want to speculate ‘‘about whether the West would refuse to consider [our proposals]. To my mind, everyone has heard President Putin and grown aware that [they] are serious.’’

Biden, however, said on Saturday that he ‘‘won’t accept anybody’s red line.’’

The US president is slated to speak with key European allies today to ensure strong allied unity and transatlantic solidarity going into the talks, a senior Biden administration official said during a briefing with reporters. Blinken will speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the Putin call, and Biden will speak with the Ukrainian leader in the days after, the official said.

Biden plans to make clear to Putin what costs the United States and its allies will impose on Russia if an invasion occurs, but also will offer a diplomatic pathway that could address Russian concerns about Nato activities, as well as US and European concerns about Russian activities, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.

Still, the official suggested that a written guarantee from Washington that Nato will not expand to include Ukraine was a nonstarter, noting that the United States believes that every sovereign nation should have the right to make its own decisions about its security.

‘‘We don’t think talk of red lines is helpful, and as the president has said, we are not going to operate according to that logic of accepting anyone’s red lines,’’ the official said.

Washington has agreed with its European allies on measures that would cause ‘‘significant and severe economic harm’’ to Russia if Putin chooses to proceed, the official said, declining to go into details.