“Putin is the aggressor. Putin selected this warfare. And now he and his nation will bear the results,” Biden stated, laying out a set of sanctions together with export controls that may “impose extreme price on the Russian economic system, each instantly and over time.”
Biden stated the brand new sanctions additionally embrace 4 Russian banks and “corrupt billionaires” and their households who’re near the Kremlin.
And he introduced a brand new deployment of floor and air forces to NATO’s japanese flank, whilst he reiterated US troops wouldn’t interact in direct battle in Ukraine.
“Our forces aren’t and won’t be engaged within the battle,” he stated. “Our forces aren’t going to Europe to struggle in Ukraine however defend our NATO allies and reassure these allies within the east.”
Biden addressed the nation from the White Home East Room, his first look in public for the reason that Russian assault commenced late Wednesday. In written statements, Biden deemed Russia’s assault a “premeditated warfare” and vowed to carry the nation accountable.
The brand new sanctions have been chosen from a menu of choices that features restrictions on monetary establishments, bans on know-how exports and blocks concentrating on members of Putin’s interior circle.
Conscious of rising fuel costs in the US, Biden stated he was working to restrict the fallout the brand new sanctions would have on power costs. He stated the US was able to launch barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve alongside its allies.
“I do know that is exhausting and that Individuals are already hurting,” he stated. “I will do every thing in my energy to restrict the ache the American persons are feeling on the fuel pump.”
Biden’s sanctions are actually meant to punish Putin’s actions, quite than stop them, by going after Russia’s economic system, its navy capabilities and people closest to the Russian President. How a lot they’ll alter Putin’s decision-making going ahead, nonetheless, stays an open query.
Earlier than he spoke, Biden conferred with the leaders from the Group of seven industrialized nations about which sanctions they deliberate to impose, hoping to coordinate a response that initiatives unity amongst Western allies. US and European officers spoke by telephone in a single day into Thursday to coordinate their responses.
In a joint assertion following the digital assembly, the leaders of the G7 stated Putin has “re-introduced warfare to the European continent.”
“He has put himself on the fallacious facet of historical past,” the leaders wrote.
On Thursday morning, EU Fee President Ursula von der Leyen promised to “weaken Russia’s financial base and its capability to modernize” following the “barbaric assault” by Russia in opposition to Ukraine.
“We are going to freeze Russian property within the European Union and cease the entry of Russian banks to European monetary markets,” she stated.
Biden additionally convened a gathering of his Nationwide Safety Council on Thursday morning to debate the state of affairs in Ukraine, a White Home official stated.
Biden’s prime nationwide safety aides convened emergency conferences late Wednesday as Putin introduced his plan to launch a “navy operation” in opposition to Ukraine in a televised deal with. The speech was aired in Russia on the identical time the United Nations Safety Council was convening to sentence Moscow’s conduct, catching some delegates off-guard.
Huddled within the West Wing, Biden’s nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan and different prime officers ready a press release from Biden condemning Russia’s assault as “unprovoked and unjustified.”
“President Putin has chosen a premeditated warfare that may carry a catastrophic lack of life and human struggling,” Biden wrote within the assertion, issued at 10:25 p.m. ET simply as explosions started in Kyiv.
An hour later, Biden was on the telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who reached out to the White Home as his nation was coming below siege.
“He requested me to name on the leaders of the world to talk out clearly in opposition to President Putin’s flagrant aggression, and to face with the individuals of Ukraine,” Biden stated afterward in a press release. He stated the US and its companions deliberate on “imposing extreme sanctions on Russia.”
This story and headline have been up to date with further developments Thursday.
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