Biden warns of “disaster for Russia” if Putin invades Ukraine
US President JoeBiden predicted on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will move into Ukraine and said that Russia would pay dearly for a full-scale invasion, where its companies might lose access to the US dollar.
“My guess is that he will move in,” Bident told a news conference. “He has to do something.”
The Kremlin has gathered about 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, a structure that the West says is a preparation for a war to prevent Ukraine from ever joining NATO’s Western security alliance. Russia denies planning an invasion.
Bidentold reporters said he believed Putin would test Western leaders and said the response to each Russian invasion would depend on the extent of Moscow’s actions and whether US allies were fussing about how they would react.
“Russia will be held accountable if it invades – and that depends on what it does. It matters if it is a minor intrusion and we have to fight over what to do and what not to do, et cetera,” Biden said. .
“But if they actually do what they are capable of doing … it will be a disaster for Russia if they invade Ukraine further,” Bidenad said.
Biden and his team have prepared a wide range of sanctions and other economic sanctions for Russia in the event of an invasion.
Biden, pressed for what he meant by “minor intrusion”, said that NATO allies do not agree on how to respond depending on what exactly Putin is doing, and said that “there are differences” between them and that he tried to ensure that “everyone is on the same page.”
“Great nations can not bluff, number one. Number two, the idea that we would do anything to divide NATO … would be a big mistake. So the question is, is it something that is significantly less than a significant invasion? “For example, only large military forces encounter. For example, it is one thing to determine if they continue to use cyber efforts; yes, we can react in the same way,” he said.
US officials refuse to limit NATO expansion as a non-starter, but Biden suggested that there could be an agreement under which the Western world may not be able to station nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
When he visited Kiev to show support, US Secretary of State Antony Blinkensaid could launch a new attack on Ukraine at “very short notice”, but Washington would continue diplomacy for as long as it could, although it was uncertain what Moscow really wanted.
(REUTERS)
