Biden has sounded a note of warning to the Russian president Putin, reminding him of the ramifications of Ukraine invasion.
Biden on Saturday again called on President Vladimir Putin to pull back more than 100,000 Russian troops stationed near Ukraine’s borders, warning that the U.S. and its allies would “respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs” if Russia invades.
President Joe Biden stated that invading Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering” and that the West was committed to diplomacy to end the crisis but “equally prepared for other scenarios”, suggesting the outbreak of a war between Russia and America.
Biden also said the United States and its allies would respond “decisively and impose swift and severe costs” if the Kremlin attacked its neighbor.
Russia denies the allegation. However, it has been proven that Russia has over 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, and has sent troops to exercises in neighboring Belarus, encircling Ukraine on three sides. U.S. officials say Russia’s buildup of firepower
has reached the point where it could invade on short notice.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, said that while tensions have been escalating for months, in recent days “the situation has simply been brought to the point of absurdity.”
He said Biden stated the possible sanctions that could be imposed on Russia.
Prior to his call with Biden, Putin had a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, followed by a meeting in Moscow with Macron, on the same matter, but to no avail.
It remains unclear whether Putin has made a final decision to move forward with military action.
However, Putin complained that the United States and NATO have not responded satisfactorily to Russian demands, that Ukraine be prohibited from joining the military alliance, and that NATO pull back forces from Eastern Europe.
The United States plans to evacuate most of its staff from the embassy in the Ukrainian capital. Britain joined other European nations in urging its citizens to leave Ukraine.
Canada has shuttered its embassy in Kyiv and relocated its diplomatic staff to a temporary office in Lviv, located in the western part of the country, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Saturday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he told his Russian counterpart Saturday that “further Russian aggression would be met with a resolute, massive and united trans-Atlantic response.”
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has maintained his cool, while observing military exercises Saturday near Crimea, the peninsula that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
“We are not afraid, we’re without panic, all is under control,” he said.
Ukrainian armed forces chief commander Lt. Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny and Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said “We are ready to meet the enemy, and not with flowers, but with Stingers, Javelins and NLAWs” — anti-tank and -aircraft weapons, they said. “Welcome to hell!”
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, also held telephone discussions on Saturday.
Further U.S.-Russia tensions arose on Saturday when the Defense Ministry summoned the U.S. Embassy’s military attache after it said the navy detected an American submarine in Russian waters near the Kuril Islands in the Pacific. The submarine declined orders to leave, but departed after the navy used unspecified “appropriate means,” the ministry said.
Adding to the sense of crisis, the Pentagon ordered an additional 3,000 U.S. troops to Poland to reassure allies.
The U.S. has urged all American citizens in Ukraine to leave the country immediately, and Sullivan said those who remain should not expect the U.S. military to rescue them in the event that air and rail transportation is severed after a Russian invasion.
U.S. officials had previously theorized the Kremlin would likely wait until after the Winter Games ended so as not to antagonize China.
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