The president of United States, Joe BidenHe said Wednesday that he warned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of unprecedented US sanctions if Russia attacks Ukraine.
A day after talking online for two hours, Biden said Putin received “the message.”
“I made it very clear that, if it invades Ukraine, there will be grave consequences, grave consequences, economic consequences the likes of which have never been seen nor have ever been seen, “Biden told reporters at the White House.
However, he added that “it is not on the table” to send US troops to confront the Russians.
Increasing the pressure on Putin, the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned of “consequences” for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a huge Russian project to deliver natural gas to Germany.
Asked by Die Welt TV whether he could imagine using the pipeline as a tool to prevent a Russian attack on UkraineScholz said his government wants “the inviolability of the borders to be respected” and added that, if this were not the case, “everyone understands that there will be consequences.”
Tas the summit Biden-Putin, the White House immediately suggested that stopping the Nord Stream 2 pipeline could be part of an economic retaliation, although the issue is controversial in Europe, which relies heavily on Russian energy resources.
France’s foreign ministry said in a note that Russia would face “massive and strategic consequences.”
In turn, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blink, said he had heard a similar message during conversations with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
Both “agreed on the need to impose rapid and severe costs on Russia if you intensify your aggression to Ukraine“said State Department spokesman Ned Price.
Putin, however, defended the mobilization of up to 100,000 Russian soldiers to the border with Ukraine as a defensive measure amid Moscow fears that its neighbor is being dragged into the sphere of the OTAN.
Putin stressed that the expansion of the OTAN going east is a “sensitive matter” for his government.
The pro-western government of Ukraine wants to join the military alliance of the OTAN, but he’s nowhere near being admitted.
Russian troops already occupy the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula and separatist forces backed by Russia dominate a territory that covers a strip of eastern Ukraine.
United States troops?
Biden He also warned that, in addition to economic measures, Washington will strengthen its military presence in NATO countries in Eastern Europe if Moscow attacks Ukraine.
“We would probably have to strengthen our presence in the countries of the OTAN to reassure those on the eastern flank especially. In addition, I made it clear that we would also provide defensive capabilities to the Ukrainians, “he recalled.
The United States already collaborates with the Ukrainian military and has provided it with millions of dollars in weaponry. But nevertheless, Biden said it was ruled out sending US troops to defend Ukraine without the agreement of the OTAN.
Biden argued that dispatching US troops to defend Ukraine from a possible Russian attack “is not among the considerations” of his administration, because that country is not part of the OTAN.
“The idea of U.S will unilaterally use force to confront Russia in case of invasion of Ukraine, it is not among the considerations at the moment, “stressed Biden.
“We have a moral obligation and a legal obligation to our allies in the OTAN under article five. It is a sacred obligation. And that obligation does not extend to … Ukraine, “he argued.
“But that would depend on what the rest of the NATO countries are willing to do as well,” Biden said, apparently leaving the door open for intervention only slightly.
On the claim of Russia that NATO expansion into its former Soviet strongholds poses a threat, Biden He said Moscow and major NATO allies were working at a high level on “whether or not we could devise some arrangement to lower the temperature on the east flank.”
The president of UkraineVolodymyr Zelensky, who has said he is ready to negotiate with Putin, welcomed the summit on Tuesday.
“It is positive that the president of the United States has spoken with the president of Russia“said Zelensky, who will speak with Biden on Thursday.
Ukraine It has been fighting Russian separatists in the eastern regions of Lugansk and Donetsk since 2014, shortly after Moscow took Crimea.
Kiev and its western allies accuse the Kremlin of supporting the separatists with military, financial and political cover, which is denied by Moscow. The conflict has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
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