SYDNEY, December 10. / TASS /. The talks between the Russian and US leaders, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, which took place on December 7, have outlined some prospects for reducing tensions between the countries over the Ukrainian conflict, leading Australian international politics expert Tony Kevin told TASS on Friday.

According to Kevin, after two-hour talks between Putin and Biden, "a way forward out of the crisis became visible this week." "Ukraine is the linchpin: if the Ukraine confrontation begins to subside, progress on other East-West fronts should become easier," the Australian expert noted.

As Kevin stated, "after five months of mounting tensions amid demonstrative military messaging and deployments on both sides, President Biden now seems to have grasped the essence of Putin’s offered vision for detente over the crucial Ukraine issue." "There must be firm international guarantees that Ukraine will not again be weaponized by the West against Russia," the political analyst insisted.

The expert believes that Putin’s article entitled ‘About the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians’, which was released on July 12, has become a precondition for the talks between the presidents. Kevin also noted that this article demonstrated that "Russia’s vision for settlement of this endemic security crisis now went well beyond the Minsk formula."

"President Putin set the diplomatic wheels in motion in July 2021, with his substantial article ‘About the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians’. He offered a wider more permanent perspective of ending the growing strategic threat to Russia of NATO’s hostile militarization of states on Russia’s Western border. He proposed a Russia-Ukraine relationship comparable to that of US-Canada or Germany-Austria: of neighboring fully sovereign states that nevertheless share and celebrate important affinities of history, values and language," the expert emphasized.

Now, the ball is in the Ukrainian president’s court, who soon will need to counter "the rage and anxiety of extreme Ukrainian nationalists." "In this task he may now have real American diplomatic and economic backing, though angry Russophobe groups in Washington will try to throw spokes in the wheels," Kevin stated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden held talks on December 7 via video linkup, with the summit lasting two hours. The main focus was the situation around Ukraine. The heads of state also addressed bilateral ties, cybersecurity issues and the Iranian nuclear deal.