At ‘pragmatic’ summit, Biden repeats US support of Ukraine

U.S. president Joe Biden and Russian president
Vladimir Putin discussed Ukraine at their summit in Geneva on June 16. “I
communicated the United States’ unwavering commitment to the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Ukraine”, Biden stated at a press conference after the
meeting, according to a readout of the press conference published on
whitehouse.gov. Biden called it one of the “areas that are more challenging.”

Biden said that in general (without referring to
Ukraine specifically), any possibility of “a strategic dialog that
matters” would show in six months to a year.

Putin mentioned Ukraine more extensively in his press
conference. He pointed out that they did not cover Ukraine extensively, but
that they had agreed to focus on a solution through the Minsk Agreements.
Furthermore, he repeated to the reporters the Russian interpretation of the
Minsk Agreements regarding elections and border issues in Donbas.

Regarding Ukraine and NATO accession, Putin stated
that, “We just touched upon this broadly and there’s nothing to discuss here.”

At a U.S. Department of State press briefing in Geneva
after the meeting, a senior administration official spoke further about
Ukraine. Besides pointing to the fact that there are “real clear and
significant differences”, there was “also some discussion of whether there
might be grounds to actually try to unstick the Minsk process. We’ll see if
there’s any – if there’s any there there.” The official also stated that the
State Department Under Secretary for Political Affairs and Eric Green, the
National Security Council senior director for Russia, were scheduled to brief
U.S. allies, including Ukraine, on the summit.

James Hydzik: The summit went as well as could be expected in Ukrainian terms. There
were no surprises and the American side is not broadcasting any “I have looked
into Putin’s soul,” quotes that leave observers scratching their heads. Both
sides said that it was a pragmatic meeting, and that the senior American
official talked about Minsk in terms of “if there’s any there there” shows that
at least for now, there are no false expectations. The next step will be to see
if any further details emerge after the briefing by Eric Green, et al.