Only pre-agreed guarantees for Ukraine will make the American leader agree to direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Kate Bedingfield at the White House briefing on Tuesday.

Bedingfield also stated that the world should be “clear-eyed” about Russia’s declared scaling back of its offensive in Ukraine, and that the world should not accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s word for it.

“We’ll need to watch and see if their actions meet their words,” she said.

“But I think we should be clear eyed about the reality of what’s happening on the ground, and no-one should be fooled by Russia’s announcements.

“We believe any movement of forces around Kyiv is a redeployment and not a withdrawal, and the world should be prepared for a major offensive against other areas of Ukraine.”

She said Biden would be willing to meet with Putin face to face, as he offered on Monday, but only if certain assurances were given first.

“It would depend on what President Putin wanted to talk about,” Bedingfield said.

“We have been very clear that there needs to be tangible de-escalation from Russia and a clear, genuine commitment to diplomacy before the president would have that kind of conversation.”

On Monday, Biden stated that the question hanging over such a meeting would be whether there was “anything to meet on that would justify him being able to end this war and rebuild Ukraine.”

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