Any plans for a potential meeting between President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are off the table as of now.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that Biden would not meet with Putin until Russia pulls back troops from Ukraine; however, Psaki did not rule out a meeting in the future entirely.
"We're never going to completely close the door to diplomacy," she told reporters during a briefing, adding "diplomacy can't succeed unless Russia changes course."
In addition, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was canceling a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which had been tentatively planned for Thursday.
The White House said Sunday that Biden had, "in principle," agreed to meet with Putin after Blinken's meeting with Lavrov, as long as Russia did not invade Ukraine. Putin has since ordered forces into the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine after declaring them independent Monday.
Biden imposed economic sanctions Tuesday on those regions, saying Putin's decision to send Russian troops in represented an invasion of Ukraine.
"He is setting up a rationale to take more territory by force, in my view," Biden stated as he announced the sanctions. "This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine."
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