President Joe Biden announced additional sanctions that “will impose severe costs on the Russian economy” following its invasion of Ukraine.
“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war and now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said from the White House Thursday.
Watch President Biden’s press conference:
The new sanctions will target Russian banks, oligarchs and high-tech sectors
Earlier, a U.S. Defense official said Russia has “every intention” of overthrowing the Ukrainian government with President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the neighboring country on Thursday.
“What we are seeing is initial phases of a large-scale invasion,” a senior Pentagon official told reporters. “They’re making a move on Kyiv.”
“They have every intention of decapitating the Ukraine government,” the official said.
The official said the first Russian assault involved more than 100 short-range ballistic missiles, but also medium-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles. The missiles were targeted at military sites — airfields, barracks and warehouses.
The United States has “seen indications” that Ukrainian troops “are resisting and fighting back,” the official said.
Putin launched the invasion early Thursday in the biggest European onslaught since the end of World War II, attacking Ukrainian forces in the disputed eastern region and launching missiles on several key cities, including the capital, Kyiv.
Putin called it a “special military operation” aimed at the “demilitarization and denazification” of its southern neighbor, once a Soviet republic but an independent country since 1991.
Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Reuters.
The United States and Britain are set to announce additional sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, with European Union allies preparing their own measures, following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to recognize the Russian-occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent states.
A senior U.S. official, while declining to give specifics in a phone briefing with reporters late Monday, said the further U.S. measures would “hold Russia accountable for this clear violation of international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as of Russia’s own international commitments.”
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss used similar language in previewing action by her government, while French and German representatives spoke about firm measures being prepared as they addressed a late Monday meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
For weeks, the U.S. and European allies warned of severe consequences for Russia if it launched a fresh invasion of Ukraine, a possibility viewed with growing fear as Russia deployed 150,000 troops along with military equipment along its border with Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden issued an initial set of sanctions Monday in response to Putin’s recognition of the breakaway regions and his order to deploy what he called Russian peacekeeping forces.
A senior Biden administration official told reporters that the first round of sanctions was specifically tied to those actions and did not represent the “swift and severe economic measures we have been preparing in coordination with allies and partners should Russia further invade Ukraine.”
Biden’s order prohibits new investment, trade and financing by Americans in those areas. “This wasn’t a speech just about Russia’s security,” a senior administration official said. “It was an attack on the very idea of a sovereign and independent Ukraine. He (Putin) made clear that he views Ukraine historically as part of Russia. And he made a number of false claims about Ukraine contention that seemed designed to excuse possible military action. This was a speech to the Russian people to justify war.”
Displaced civilians from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions rest in a sport hall in Taganrog, Russia, Feb. 21, 2022.
The official would not say whether plans were still on for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, later this week. That meeting was intended to set the scene for a possible summit between Putin and Biden, with the United States saying both were predicated on Russia not invading Ukraine.
“We’ll continue to pursue diplomacy until the tanks roll,” the official said. “We are under no illusions about what is likely to come next. And we’re prepared to respond decisively when it does.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tuesday the Russian side was still “ready for negotiations.”
Blinken is scheduled to host Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba for a meeting in Washington on Tuesday after speaking with him by phone Monday to “reaffirm unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine,” the State Department said in a statement.
Analyst and author Angela Stent of the Brookings Institution said Monday that a summit between Biden and Putin is an especially fraught proposition now.
“At this point, I think, to have another in-person meeting between President Biden and President Putin without some conditions being laid for the Russians, without them showing some goodwill or sincere interest in discussions by reversing some of the things that they’re doing, I think it makes no sense to do that,” she said to reporters and analysts. “Because, you know, otherwise we’re just playing into the Kremlin’s hands, and it looks as if they’re going to go ahead and do whatever they want to do irrespective of these negotiations.”
Author and analyst Steven Pifer agreed.
“I don’t want to downplay diplomacy,” he said. “But at this point in time, I would think that there would have to be some indication to the White House that a meeting with Putin would actually have a chance of yielding something. And right now, again, based on the experience that (French President Emmanuel) Macron had, that (German Chancellor Olaf) Scholz had, it doesn’t seem like these meetings – I think they are ego boosters for the Russian president, but they don’t seem to be doing anything to turn him from a course which has been one of continual escalation of the crisis.”
Biden spoke to both the German and French leaders Monday, and, separately, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In both calls, the White House said, “The leaders strongly condemned President Putin’s decision to recognize the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine as ‘independent.’”
A map showing the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Washington was immediately joined by the European Union in announcing sanctions, with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel calling Putin’s recognition of these separatist areas “a blatant violation of international law.”
The Kremlin said Putin informed the leaders of France and Germany Monday of his decision and then signed documents declaring the regions as no longer part of Ukraine.
Putin, from a desk at the Kremlin, delivered a lengthy televised address to the Russian people, outlining his version of the history of national boundaries in Europe and the 1990s breakup of the Soviet Union.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, chairs a Security Council meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 21, 2022.
He contended that Ukraine was “never” a true nation but rather historically a part of Russia.
About 14,000 people have been killed in the flashpoint Donbas territory since 2014 in fighting between pro-Moscow separatists and Kyiv’s forces, trench warfare battles that started after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
The U.S. and its NATO allies have contended that Russia is staging false-flag operations in Donetsk and Luhansk to make it appear Ukrainian forces are an increasing threat. Kyiv says it does not intend to launch a full-scale attack on the region in eastern Ukraine, and the West says Russia is attempting to justify grounds for an invasion to protect Russian sympathizers.
The separatists want Russia to sign friendship treaties and give them military aid to protect them from what they contend is an ongoing Ukrainian military offensive.
The Russian parliament last week called on Putin to formally recognize the DNR and LNR, both of which declared independence from Ukraine in 2014.
Putin said there was “no prospect” for peace to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, but Moscow has contended it has no plans to invade Ukraine.
Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. VOA’s Chris Hannas contributed to the report.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday welcomed U.S. plans to deploy more troops to Europe and said NATO is considering sending additional battle groups to the southeastern part of its alliance amid tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border.
Stoltenberg told reporters that while NATO is preparing for the possibility that Russia may take military action, NATO remains ready to engage in “meaningful dialogue” and find a diplomatic resolution to the crisis.
“NATO continues to call on Russia to deescalate. Any further Russian aggression would have severe consequences and carry a heavy price,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that the U.S. deployment is heightening tensions in the region.
The United States and other Western allies have been preparing economic sanctions to level against Russia in hopes of persuading Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull back the more than 100,000 troops Russia has near the border. Russia has denied it plans to invade Ukraine.
Stoltenberg said Thursday there has been a “significant movement of Russian military forces into Belarus,” Ukraine’s northern neighbor where Russia is set to take part in joint military drills this month.
“This is the biggest Russian deployment there since the Cold War,” Stoltenberg said.
Russia has demanded NATO pull back troops and weapons deployed in eastern European member countries, and to make clear that Ukraine cannot join the 30-member military alliance.
NATO and Ukraine have rejected those demands, saying countries are free to pick their allies.
But Stoltenberg said Thursday that NATO is ready to talk to Russia about relations between the two sides, and about risk reduction, increased transparency and arms control.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is meeting Thursday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the latest in a series of visits to Kyiv by world leaders and diplomats to show support for Ukraine and try to advance a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Erdogan has suggested Turkey, a NATO member that also has good relations with Russia, could act as a mediator.
Talks Wednesday between Putin and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not provide any breakthroughs. French President Emmanuel Macron was expected to have a phone conversation with Putin later Thursday.
Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden discussed the Russia-Ukraine situation in a call Wednesday, with the White House saying the two leaders reviewed diplomatic efforts and “preparations to impose swift and severe economic costs on Russia should it further invade Ukraine.”
The Norwegian Rights Council also warned Thursday about the effects on those living in eastern Ukraine if the crisis escalates.
After years of violence in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where Ukrainian forces have been battling Russia-backed separatists, the aid organization said the humanitarian needs are already high with nearly 3 million people relying on aid.
Increased fighting “would devastate already damaged civil infrastructure, further restrict peoples’ movements, block access to communities in need, and disrupt essential public services such as water, power, transport and banking,” the NRC said in a statement.
The U.S. said Wednesday it is dispatching 2,000 more troops to Europe, most of them to Poland, and moving 1,000 troops from Germany to Romania to bolster NATO’s eastern flank countries.
The additional U.S. troops, part of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, are “not going to fight in Ukraine” in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. Rather, he said, they are intended as an “unmistakable signal that we stand with NATO.”
Kirby said the new deployment is not permanent, but that the U.S. could dispatch more troops as warranted. Kirby said the deployment is separate from the 8,500 U.S. troops placed on heightened alert last week for possible dispatch to Europe.
The Defense Department spokesperson said the U.S. still does not believe Putin has “made a decision on invading Ukraine.”
But Kirby said the Russian leader is “showing no signs of being willing to de-escalate” and has continued to add troops in Russian-aligned Belarus to Ukraine’s north and along Russia’s border with eastern Ukraine.
Kirby said the U.S. is “prepared for a range of contingencies” involving Putin’s actions toward Ukraine. The spokesman said the new deployment is “not the sum total of the deterrence.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba addressed the conflict in a broader context at a news conference Wednesday, saying, “I’m confident that Russia’s war on Ukraine and wider Europe will ultimately end when two fundamental issues are resolved. First, the West should turn from reactive to proactive strategies when dealing with Russia.”
He added, “Ambiguity on Ukraine’s role as an indivisible part of the West has to be put to an end. The Ukrainian people chose this course and defended it at a high price.”
“We are historically, politically and culturally a part of the West,” Kuleba said. “It is time to end harmful ambiguity which serves as a temptation for the Kremlin to continue its attempts to undermine Ukraine or reverse its course against the will of the Ukrainian people.”
Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
