But after the meeting, the situation remained just as uncertain. The American side merely confirmed that the policy of restricting Western-supplied long-range systems to targets within Ukraine had not changed. Vladimir Putin, clearly worried about an imminent change, had spent the previous few days making bloodcurdling threats of retribution to play on Mr Biden’s fears of escalation. Britain was singled out: the Kremlin thinks it is pushing to end restrictions. Just before the White House meeting Russia publicly announced it had decided, weeks earlier, to expel six British diplomats for spying, a charge Britain’s government called “completely baseless”.