Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz have warned that the “high price” Russia will pay if it invades Ukraine would include the end of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
On his first trip to the White House as German Chancellor, Mr Scholz said Berlin and Washington “will be united” in their response to an incursion by Moscow, after the US president warned they would bring the £8.3bn project “to an end” if Russian troops cross the Ukrainian border.
It came after French president Emmanuel Macron told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, at the start of talks in the Kremlin, that he was seeking a “useful” response “that of course allows us to avoid war and to build bricks of trust, stability, visibility”.
Mr Putin said Russia and France shared “a common concern about what is happening in the security sphere in Europe”. Moscow has demanded a promise that Ukraine will never be admitted to Nato.
Talks between the pair took place as UK defence secretary Ben Wallace announced that 350 more troops will be deployed to Poland in the “spirit of solidarity”.
