Any plans for a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are off the table for the time being, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
Psaki did not explicitly rule out a meeting happening in the future but said Biden would not meet with Putin unless Russia de-escalates the situation in Ukraine by pulling back troops.
“We’re never going to completely close the door to diplomacy,” he told reporters during a briefing, adding, however, that “diplomacy can’t succeed unless Russia changes course.”
Earlier, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was scrapping a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that had been tentatively planned for Thursday.
