US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle to hold a summit on the Ukraine crisis, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron has said, coming shortly after US officials claimed a Russian invasion of Ukraine was imminent.
The Elysee Palace said Mr Macron had pitched both leaders on a summit over "security and strategic stability in Europe".
"Presidents Biden and Putin have both accepted the principle of such a summit," the statement said, before adding that such a meeting would be impossible if Russia invaded Ukraine as Western nations fear it plans to.
The White House reiterated in a statement that Mr Biden had accepted the meeting "in principle" but only "if an invasion hasn't happened".
"We are always ready for diplomacy," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
Many details about the proposed summit — announced after a volley of phone calls between Mr Macron, Mr Biden, Mr Putin, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson — are unclear.
Mr Macron's office and the White House said that the substance of the summit would be worked out by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during their upcoming meeting planned on February 24.
A US official earlier said Mr Biden's assertion that Mr Putin has made the decision to roll Russian forces into Ukraine was based on intelligence that Russian front-line commanders have been given orders to begin final preparations for an attack.
The official spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to protect sensitive intelligence, they said.
Russia and Belarus, meanwhile, announced an extension to military drills near Ukraine's northern borders, as the US warned citizens of possible attacks on Russian cities including Moscow and St Petersburg.
With the drills due to end on Sunday local time, Belarus Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin announced they would continue because of military activity near the borders of Russia and Belarus and an escalation of the situation in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Mr Khrenin said the focus of the extended exercises was "to ensure an adequate response and de-escalation of military preparations of ill-wishers near our common borders".
NATO says Russia has up to 30,000 troops in Belarus and could use them as part of an invasion force to attack Ukraine, which lies to the south of Belarus.
Warnings of threatened attacks in Moscow, St Petersburg
The US embassy in Russia, meanwhile, issued a security alert to American citizens stating they should have evacuation plans from Russia that "do not rely on US government assistance".
"There have been threats of attacks against shopping centres, railway and metro stations, and other public gathering places in major urban areas, including Moscow and St Petersburg as well as in areas of heightened tension along the Russian border with Ukraine," the statement said.
Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, questioned if the United States had passed on the information about possible attacks to Russia.
"And if not, how is one to understand all of this?" Ms Zakharova said.
Russia continues to deny that it plans to invade Ukraine and did not comment on the drills with Belarus.
Ukraine is surrounded on three sides by about 150,000 Russian soldiers, warplanes and equipment.
"We're talking about the potential for war in Europe," US Vice President Kamala Harris said at a security conference in Munich, Germany.
'On the brink of an invasion'
Speaking to CNN, Mr Blinken said earlier that all signs suggested Russia was about to invade.
"Everything we are seeing suggests that this is dead serious, that we are on the brink of an invasion," Mr Blinken said, adding that the West was equally prepared if Moscow invades.
"Until the tanks are actually rolling, and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President [Vladimir] Putin from carrying this forward."
Mr Blinken also defended the Biden administration's decision not to unleash sanctions on Russia ahead of a widely anticipated invasion, despite mounting criticism from Kyiv and domestic rivals.
US officials argue that earlier implementation of sanctions on Mr Putin's government, before he invades, would just guarantee such a crisis happens immediately.
"The purpose of the sanctions in the first instance is to try to deter Russia from going to war. As soon as you trigger them that deterrence is gone," Mr Blinken said.
Mr Putin and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, agreed in a phone call on the need for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine, both governments said.
A French presidential adviser said the two agreed that a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), with representatives from Ukraine and Russia, should be held on Monday.
Poland, currently the OSCE chair, earlier said that — at Ukraine's request — it was convening an extraordinary session of the council, which is dedicated to preventing armed conflict, on Monday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the repeated warnings by the West that Russia was about to attack Ukraine were provocative and could have "detrimental consequences", without giving details.
Mr Putin takes no notice of such Western statements, Mr Peskov told Rossiya 1 state TV.
"The fact is that this directly leads to an increase in tension," Mr Peskov said.
Russia and its allies say Ukraine and the West are whipping up tensions by sending NATO reinforcements to eastern Europe.
Western countries are preparing sanctions they say would be wide-reaching against Russian companies and individuals in case of an invasion.
Boris Johnson said in a BBC interview that such sanctions would "hit very very hard," and could include restrictions on Russian businesses' access to the dollar and the pound.
However, he acknowledged, such threats may not deter Moscow.
"We have to accept at the moment that Vladimir Putin is possibly thinking illogically about this and doesn't see the disaster ahead," Mr Johnson said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the West should impose some of the sanctions now, rather than waiting for an invasion.
Heavy shelling in eastern Ukraine continues
The focus of tensions in recent days has been on the swath of eastern Ukraine that Russian-backed rebels seized in 2014, the same year Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
More than 14,000 people have been killed in the conflict over the past eight years.
Incidents of shelling across the line dividing government forces and separatists — which were sporadic in the past — increased sharply last week.
On Sunday, explosions were heard in the centre of Donetsk in the eastern Donbas region controlled by separatists.
Heavy shelling was reported elsewhere in the region.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in the region.
Mr Macron blamed the separatists for the renewed hostilities, while Mr Putin blamed Ukraine, the French presidential adviser said.
Kyiv's Western allies are concerned Russia might use the escalation as a pretext for wider conflict.
More than 30,000 people from Donetsk and nearby Luhansk have crossed the Russian border in the past 24 hours, TASS news agency said, quoting authorities in Russia's Rostov region.
The separatists began evacuating residents on Friday saying Ukraine was planning to attack — which Kyiv denies.
Local military forces in one of the separatist areas, Luhansk, said on Sunday that two civilians had been killed and five buildings damaged in shelling by the Ukraine military.
Russia's Investigative Committee will investigate the case, the RIA news agency quoted it as saying.
Two Ukrainian soldiers were reported killed and four wounded on Saturday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said water services had been disrupted for more than a million people in the region, and called on all sides to spare civilian infrastructure.
With Western fears of war rising, US President Joe Biden was due to convene his top advisers to discuss the crisis.
Mr Biden said on Saturday he believed Russia could launch an attack "at any time," despite assurances from the Kremlin that some troops were returning to their permanent bases after military exercises.
ABC/wires
