Joe Biden: I'll sit down with Vladimir Putin if he pulls out of Ukraine

Joe Biden said he was prepared to sit down with Vladimir Putin if he agreed to pull out of Ukraine and end the war.

Speaking at a White House press conference after talks with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, Mr Biden said he would only do so in consultation with his Nato allies.

Asked if a Russian withdrawal from Crimea should be a condition for negotiations, Mr Biden said: "There's one way for this war to end - the rational way. Putin to pull out of Ukraine, number one. But it appears he's not going to do that. He's paying a very high price for failing to do it."

Mr Biden added: "The fact of the matter is I have no immediate plans to contact Mr Putin."

The US President then said he would "choose his words carefully".

He said: "I am prepared to speak with Mr Putin, if in fact there is an interest in him deciding he's looking for a way to end the war. He hasn't done that yet.

"If that's the case, in consultation with my French and my Nato friends, I'll be happy to sit down with Putin and see what he has in mind. He hasn't done that yet."

Mr Biden later added: "He [Mr Putin] has miscalculated across the board. The question is how does he get out of the circumstance he's in. I'm prepared if he's willing to talk to find out what he's willing to do.

"But I'll only do it in consultation with my Nato allies. I'm not going to do it on my own."

Mr Biden's comments came as Mr Macron urged allies to stop demanding that Mr Putin step down as a precondition for talks with Russia, which put him at odds with Ukraine.

The French president, on a state visit to Washington, said he plans to speak to Mr Putin "in the coming days" after his discussions with Mr Biden.

Mr Macron, unlike other Western leaders, has engaged multiple times with Mr Putin since Moscow invaded Ukraine.

He said: "My conviction and my pragmatic approach is to say, I have to engage with the existing leaders and the one in charge of the country.

"Because if we do believe in national sovereignty, we cannot decide to say that a precondition is regime change to start negotiating."

'Good peace isn't peace imposed by others'

As to whether Mr Putin could be a faithful and reliable participant in peace negotiations, the French leader suggested the verdict was still out.

He said: "If I had the answer, I would be around the negotiating table with him."

But he made clear he believed "a good peace is not a peace that will be imposed on the Ukrainians by others".

Mr Macron has tried to position himself as a negotiator on the world stage, boosting his credentials at home. In doing so he has also sought European autonomy from Washington, Kyiv’s biggest backer in the conflict.

Mr Macron’s overtures and his regular contacts with Mr Putin have underscored a split between France and more hardline Ukraine supporters, including the UK, Poland, and the Baltic states.

The French president on Thursday expressed optimism over Ukraine's progress in resisting Moscow but cautioned that a long and difficult war lay ahead.

He said: "Ukraine is clearly having a very positive counteroffensive, (but) saying they are winning the war is probably too early."

He stressed a "sustainable" peace that ends the conflict could still be hammered out. "I think it's still possible" to return to negotiations, he told ABC News.

Biden ramping up training for Ukraine soldiers

Meanwhile, CNN reported that Mr Biden is considering a dramatic expansion in the training the US military provides to Ukrainian forces, including instructing up to 2,500 soldiers a month in Germany.

The drills would cover more sophisticated battlefield tactics including on how to coordinate military manoeuvres with artillery support.

The US was also considering sending Patriot air defence systems, in what would be yet another threshold crossed by the White House.