Top officials from Ukraine and Russia met in Paris on Wednesday for talks to defuse tensions on their border, a meeting seen as a positive step by France despite fresh warnings from the US that Moscow was preparing military action.
The meeting in the French capital between the Kremlin's deputy chief of staff Dmitry Kozak and senior Ukrainian presidential advisor Andriy Yermak, alongside French and German diplomats, was seen by Paris as holding out faint hope of a thaw.
The sanctions are expected to include new restrictions on US technology exports to Russia and Biden indicated that the US would also personally target Russian leader Vladimir Putin. "I have no idea whether he's made the ultimate decision, but we certainly see every indication that he is going to use military force sometime perhaps now and the middle of February," Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told a forum.
Fears of a Russian invasion follow on from Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and the capture by pro-Kremlin separatists of two self-proclaimed breakaway republics in Ukraine's east. The core Russian demands -- that seek to dramatically limit NATO's reach and capabilities in Eastern Europe and the ex-USSR -- will almost certainly be rejected in the American written reply.
Paris is hoping that Russia will agree to some"humanitarian measures" such as prisoner exchanges in eastern Ukraine and the opening of checkpoints manned by the separatists.