Obama, Putin meet; 1st time since Ukraine crisis
BENOUVILLE, France (AP) — President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Friday on the sidelines of a lunch for world leaders attending D-Day commemoration ceremonies, marking their first face-to-face conversation since the crisis in Ukraine erupted.
The White House said the conversation was informal and lasted 10-15 minutes inside a chateau where the leaders ate lunch.
As leaders posed outside the building for a group photo before the lunch, Obama and Putin appeared to be avoiding each other deliberately. But once inside, they made time for their first such exchange since Putin annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. As the crisis as developed, Obama and Putin have spoken by phone, but haven't met in person.
U.S. President Barack Obama, center, participates in the 70th French-American commemoration D-Day ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France on Friday, June 6, 2014. World leaders and veterans gathered by the beaches of Normandy on Friday to mark the 70th anniversary of World War Two's D-Day landings. (AP Photo/Pascal Rossignol, Pool)
Obama told reporters Thursday that if and Putin ended up speaking, he would tell the Russian leader that he has a new path to engage with Ukraine through President-elect Petro Poroshenko, who is scheduled to take office Saturday.
"If he does not, if he continues a strategy of undermining the sovereignty of Ukraine, then we have no choice but to respond" with more sanctions, Obama said.
Obama, who said he has a "businesslike" relationship with Putin, expressed hope that the Russian leader is "moving in a new direction" on Ukraine since he didn't immediately denounce Poroshenko's election on May 25. "But I think we have to see what he does and not what he says," Obama said.
Friday's exchange came during a lunch hosted by French President Francois Hollande in Benouville. Obama and Putin were both in France, as were the other world figures, for the 70th anniversary of Allied troops storming the beaches at Normandy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives for a meeting with French President Francois Hollande, at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Thursday, June 5, 2014 where U.S. President Barack Obama, French president Francois Hollande and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will gather in Normandy to remember the more than 9,000 Allied soldiers killed or wounded that day. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)
