US President Joe Biden (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: AFP/VNA

The diplomatic path remains open and the way for Moscow to show that it wants to pursue that path is simple: it should de-escalate, rather than escalate, Blinken said after talks on Saturday with the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea in Hawaii.

In an hour-long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, US President Joe Biden said the US is still ready to choose the diplomatic path while preparing other options. President Putin agreed to continue the dialogue, but said Russia has not yet seen any enthusiasm on the part of Western countries for enforcing the Minsk agreement, which Russia considers the answer to the current crisis. The agreement was signed in 2015 by the Normandy Quartet– Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany – to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

President Biden on Saturday also spent 50 minutes on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the two agreed to continue pursuing "diplomacy and deterrence".