MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that he welcomed a security dialogue with the West as his military reported pulling back some of its troops near Ukraine. But US President Joe Biden said the United States had not verified Russia’s claim and that an invasion was still a distinct possibility.

Putin said he does not want war and would rely on negotiations as he presses his demand for the West to halt Ukraine’s bid to join NATO. At the same time, he did not commit to a full pullback of troops, saying Russia’s next moves in the standoff will depend on how the situation evolves.

In remarks at the White House, Biden promised that the US would continue to give diplomacy “every chance” to prevent a Russian invasion, but he struck a skeptical tone about Moscow’s intentions. Biden also insisted that the US and its allies would not to “sacrifice basic principles” respecting Ukraine sovereignty.

“Two paths are still open,” Biden said. “But let there be no doubt: If Russia commits this breach by invading Ukraine, responsible nations around the world will not hesitate to respond. If we do not stand for freedom where it is at risk today, we’ll surely pay a steeper price tomorrow.”

Putin’s overtures soothed global markets that have been on edge amid the worst East-West tensions in decades. Washington and its European allies remained cautious, saying they want to see evidence of a Russian pullback. Biden said 150,000 Russian forces are now massed near Ukraine, an increase from an earlier US estimate of 130,000 troops.

The US and NATO continue to warn that Russia could invade at any time as they sent troops and military supplies to shore up NATO members in Eastern Europe. Russia has denied having such plans. It wants the West to keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of the alliance, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back forces from Eastern Europe.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on February 15, 2022, Russian army tanks move back to their permanent base after drills in Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

The US and its allies have roundly rejected those demands, but offered to engage in talks with Russia on ways to bolster security in Europe.

Speaking after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the West agreed to discuss a ban on missile deployment to Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures — issues that Moscow put on the table years ago.

He said Russia is open to discuss “some of those elements,” but added that it would only do so in combination “with the main issues that are of primary importance for us.”

Asked if there could be a war in Europe, Putin said Russia doesn’t want it but that Ukraine’s bid to join NATO posed a major security threat to his country.

While Scholz reiterated that NATO’s eastward expansion “is not on the agenda — everyone knows that very well,” Putin retorted that Moscow will not be assuaged by such assurances.

“They are telling us it won’t happen tomorrow,” Putin said. “Well, when will it happen? The day after tomorrow? What does it change for us in the historic perspective? Nothing.”

Putin went on to argue NATO expansion violates the principle of the indivisibility of security enshrined in international documents.

“We want to solve this issue now as part of negotiation process through peaceful means,” Putin said. “We very much hope that our partners hear our concerns and take them seriously.”

Scholz also said diplomatic options are “far from exhausted,” and praised the announcement of a troop withdrawal as a “good signal,” adding: “We hope that more will follow.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during their talks in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on February 15, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The Russian Defense Ministry released images of tanks and howitzers rolling onto railway platforms and more tanks rolling across snowy fields. It did not disclose where or when the images were taken, or where the vehicles were headed, other than “to places of permanent deployment.”

Biden acknowledged the likelihood that US and allied sanctions on Russia in retaliation for an invasion of Ukraine would have significant blowback on the American economy, including possible price hikes and disruption to the nation’s energy supply.

“The American people understand that defending democracy and liberty is never without cost,” Biden said. “I will not pretend this will be painless.”

He said the administration was trying to preempt supply issues by working with energy producers and shippers on contingency plans, and said he would work with Congress on unspecified “additional measures to protect consumers and address the impact of prices at the pump.”

Russian forces continue to threaten Ukraine along the eastern border and from the Black Sea Crimean peninsula that Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014, the year when it also backed a separatist insurgency in the country’s east. More Russian troops loom over Ukraine in Belarus, where they were deployed for sweeping joint drills.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022, Russian army tanks move back to their permanent base after drills in Russia. In what could be another sign that the Kremlin would like to lower the temperature, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that some units participating in military exercises would begin returning to their bases. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Ukraine expressed skepticism about Russia’s statements of a pullback.

“We won’t believe when we hear, we’ll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we’ll believe in de-escalation,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that “so far, we have not seen … any signs of reduced Russian military presence on the borders of Ukraine,” adding that the alliance wants to see a “significant and enduring withdrawal of forces, troops, and not least the heavy equipment.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated the invasion danger still exists. Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt issued a similar warning, and Estonia’s foreign intelligence agency said the Russian armed forces could launch an operation “from the second half of February.”

Few Russians expect a war, following the Kremlin’s dismissal of Western warnings as “hysteria” and “absurdity.”

In a village in Russia’s Belgorod region about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Ukraine’s border, residents carried on with life as usual, even as more military personnel have been passing through village streets.

A Ukrainian serviceman fires his weapon during an exercise in the Joint Forces Operation, in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, February 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

“We are friends with Ukraine,” said villager Lyudmila Nechvolod. “We are really on the border, we really have relatives here and there, everyone has somebody there (on the Ukrainian side). No one wants war.”

Diplomatic efforts continued Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a call with Lavrov, according to a State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the call had not been publicly announced. And Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday about the evolving crisis.

European leaders have scrambled to head off a new war on the continent after several tense weeks that have left Europeans feeling caught between Moscow and Washington, and further pushed up household energy prices because of a dependence on Russian gas.

Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers urged Putin to recognize rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. The State Duma, Russia’s lower house, voted to submit an appeal to Putin to that effect.

Putin said the motion reflects the Russian public’s sympathy for the suffering of people trapped in the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed over 14,000 since 2014. He noted, however, that Russia continues to believe a 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany should serve as the main vehicle for a settlement of the separatist conflict.

Putin’s statement signaled that he wasn’t inclined to back the parliament motion that would effectively invalidate the 2015 agreement, which marked a major diplomatic coup for Moscow, requesting Kyiv to offer a broad self-rule to the separatist territories. It has been resented by many in Ukraine and its implementation has stalled.

WASHINGTON — Fearing a deja vu of last May’s violence between Israelis and the Palestinians, the Biden administration is urging Israel to take preemptive actions in order to prevent a similar eruption this coming April, which will see a confluence of the Jewish holiday of Passover, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Christian holiday of Easter, US and Israeli officials have told The Times of Israel.

Last spring saw events in Jerusalem surrounding the Temple Mount and looming evictions of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood snowball into an 11-day war between Israel and terror groups in the Gaza Strip.

Biden officials at the highest levels of the National Security Council and the State Department are concerned developments in Jerusalem could once again spiral out of control, a US official said.

This time, though, the US has identified the risk well ahead of time, as opposed to last May, when the White House hadn’t yet filled key positions relevant to the Israeli-Palestinian file and only began reacting to developments in Jerusalem in the several weeks leading up to the May war.

Following consultations with diplomats and experts on the ground, the Biden administration has identified the confluence of religious holidays in April as a “recipe for disaster in Jerusalem,” a US official said.

Jews will be celebrating Passover from April 15 until April 22; Muslims will observe the holy month of Ramadan beginning April 2 and Christians will mark Easter on April 17.

Border Police wearing protective masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic walk past closed shops on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem’s Old City on Easter, April 8, 2020. (Gali Tibbon/AFP)

Each holiday means an increase in religious pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem’s Old City, with its flashpoint holy sites. Police will be tasked with securing the visits of Muslims and Jews to the Temple Mount, also known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, during a period where they typically limit access to the Old City in order to allow for Christian pilgrims to reach churches for Easter.

“Customarily, the Old City is the one location where these three often incompatible faiths cohabit and celebrate in the same limited space. But when tensions soar, as well they may this year, Jerusalem can transform “clash of civilizations” into local politics with global shockwaves,” said Danny Seidemann, a leading Israeli expert on Jerusalem.

A senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Jerusalem is aware of Washington’s concerns regarding April and that security forces are preparing for the period “with the utmost sensitivity.”

Like last year, much of the tension currently bubbling in Jerusalem surrounds a looming eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Municipal authorities have issued a directive to raze the home of a Palestinian family in March.

MK Itamar Ben Gvir arrives to open his office in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, February 13, 2022. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90

On Friday, a Jewish family’s home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood was firebombed, leading far-right MK Itamar Ben-Gvir to announce that he would set up a makeshift parliamentary office in Sheikh Jarrah until police could ensure the security of the Jews living there.

Ben-Gvir, the head of the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit faction in the Religious Zionism political party, took the same step last spring and it led to clashes between Jewish and Palestinian activists, as it did on Sunday.

Following pressure from the Biden administration, then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to take a series of steps aimed at lowering tensions, including convincing Ben Gvir to fold up the tent and table he set up in Sheikh Jarrah, delaying a court hearing regarding the looming evictions, limiting the number of Jewish pilgrims allowed onto the Temple Mount, and rerouting a parade of religious Jewish nationalists through the Old City.

Ultimately, though, events had already escalated “to a point of no return,” said a former senior US official who regularly consults with the Biden administration on this issue. On May 10, Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at Jerusalem, which became the opening salvo of the Gaza war.

Police deployed in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, February 13, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

This time, the US wants to preempt the violence.

“We’re trying to urge Israel to act well in advance, so we don’t get to a point where it’s too late and where rogue actors can co-opt the situation on the ground,” the former senior US official said, adding that the Biden administration has had April “circled in their calendars since the beginning of the year.”

Unlike last May, the US now has a full-time ambassador to Israel on the ground in Tom Nides, who can engage directly with the parties to prevent an escalation. While Nides is new to the post and the file, he can be assisted by Acting Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Yael Lempert, who previously served as deputy head of the US consulate in Jerusalem.

But contacts with the Palestinians remain limited, as Ramallah has boycotted the US embassy since former US president Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the mission there. Trump later shuttered the consulate, which served as the de facto mission to the Palestinians, and folded the department responsible for engaging with the Palestinians into the embassy.

The Palestinian Authority began loosening its boycott of the embassy last year when the Biden administration announced that it would reopen the consulate.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hosts an American delegation led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr, who is flanked to his left by US Embassy Charge D’affaires Michael Ratney and Palestinian Affairs Unit Chief George Noll on October 5, 2021. (WAFA)

PA President Mahmoud Abbas met and spoke several times with the acting head of the US embassy at the time, Michael Ratney, who already had close ties with Ramallah from his time as Jerusalem consul general during the Obama administration. But Ratney is now back in the US, and Palestinian frustration with the Biden administration is growing over the latter’s failure to fulfill its promise to reopen the consulate in the face of Israeli opposition.

During the Obama administration, then-secretary of state John Kerry engaged regularly with Israel, the Palestinians and Jordan to limit tensions surrounding the Temple Mount. That kind of senior-level engagement has not been seen since, and the Biden administration has held off on appointing a special envoy tasked with focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian file in one of many signs that its priorities are elsewhere.

“Folks who deal with this issue closely will always say that US engagement is not enough, but [the engagement] you’re seeing right now is much more intense than it was last year,” said a US official. “Hopefully that will help in ensuring that next April does not end [as] last May did.”