US President Biden agrees to hold summit with Russia’s Putin

US President Joe Biden has agreed “in principle” to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the crisis over Ukraine

The White House says a summit proposed by France will take place only if Russia doesn’t move forward and invade its neighbour, Ukraine, as tensions continue to boil over.

The planned high-stakes talks could possibly offer a diplomatic way forward, to one of the worst security crises in Europe in decades.

Officials in the United States say that intelligence suggests that Russia is ready to launch a military operation against Kyiv – but Moscow continues to deny the allegations.

The proposal was announced by the French presidency after two phone calls between President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Putin, which went on for almost three hours in total.

The second exchange happened in the early hours of Monday Moscow time, and followed a 15-minute conversation Macron had with Biden

France says that the details of the possible summit will be discussed during a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Thursday.

The US Government has also claimed that Russia appeared to be “continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon”, and that the US was ready to impose “swift and severe consequences” should it happen.

The White House estimates Russia has deployed 190,000 troops around Ukraine, including separatist forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.