The Kremlin on Monday said there were no concrete plans for a summit over Ukraine between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden, after the French president said the two leaders had agreed a meeting in principle, APA reports citing Reuters.
A summit might offer a possible path out of Europe's biggest military crisis in decades, and financial markets edged higher on the glimmer of hope for a diplomatic solution.
However, both Washington and Moscow played down hopes of a breakthrough, and satellite imagery appeared to show Russian deployments closer to Ukraine's border than before.
Western countries accuse Russia of planning an invasion of its neighbour. Moscow denies planning any attack but has demanded security guarantees including a promise that Ukraine would never join NATO.
Nerves were further frayed when the Belarusian defence ministry announced on Sunday that Russia would extend military drills in Belarus that had been due to end. Russia has tens of thousands of troops there, north of the Ukrainian border.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that a phone call or meeting between Putin and Biden could be set up at any time, but there were no concrete plans yet for a summit. Tensions were growing, but diplomatic contacts were active and a meeting of foreign ministers was possible this week.
He also said Putin would imminently address an extraordinary session of Russia's Security Council.
The White House said in a statement that Biden had accepted the meeting "in principle" but only "if an invasion hasn't happened".
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