Macron sees decisive next few days for Ukraine after Putin meeting

While the West has ruled out defending Ukraine with military force, it has promised to use an arsenal of tools including arms shipments and reinforcement of nearby NATO countries

The coming days will be crucial in the Ukraine standoff, French President Emmanuel Macron said after a meeting on Monday with Russia's Vladimir Putin, who suggested some progress had been made in the talks.

Putin said the first Moscow summit he has held with a Western leader since the Kremlin began massing troops near its neighbor had been substantive, but also repeated warnings about the threat of war were Ukraine to join NATO.

Russia, jostling for influence in post-Cold War Europe, wants security guarantees that include a promise of no missile deployments near its borders and a scaling back of NATO's military