Biden vows to defend ‘every inch of NATO territory’ in warning to Russia
President Joe Biden sent a direct warning to Moscow Tuesday, saying that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would kick off “a war of choice, and a war without cause or reason.”
The president spoke hours after Russian officials claimed that some of their forces had pulled back from positions near the border with Ukraine. Biden said that such news “would be good, but we have not verified that.”
“We have not yet verified the Russian military units are returning to their home bases. Indeed, our analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position,” the president added. “And the fact remains, right now, Russia has more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine and Belarus along Ukraine’s border, and invasion remains distinctly possible.”
Days after deploying 5,000 troops to Central and Eastern Europe to bolster NATO forces there, Biden vowed that the United States would “defend every inch of NATO territory.”
Earlier in his remarks, however, the president had insisted that the Atlantic alliance was “not a threat to Russia. Ukraine is not threatening Russia. Neither the US nor NATO have missiles in Ukraine. We do not — do not — have plans to put them there as well. We’re not targeting the people of Russia. We do not seek to destabilize Russia.
“To the citizens of Russia: You are not our enemy,” Biden went on. “And I do not believe you want a bloody, destructive war against Ukraine, a country of people with whom you share such deep ties of family, history and culture.”
The president reiterated the administration’s call for all Americans still in Ukraine to “leave now before it’s too late to leave safely,” and repeated that “I will not send American servicemen to fight in Ukraine,” though he added that “if Russia targets Americans in Ukraine, we will respond forcefully.”
While Biden has repeatedly promised that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be met with “severe” sanctions against Moscow, he admitted for the first time Tuesday that the US economy may suffer collateral damage.
“The American people understand that defending democracy and liberty is never without cost,” he said, later adding: “I will not pretend this will be painless. There could be impact on our energy prices.”
Biden added that the administration was working proactively to try to preempt supply issues by working with energy producers and shippers on contingency plans, and said he would work with Congress on unspecified “additional measures to protect consumers and address the impact of prices at the pump.”
The president also repeated his earlier vow that if Russian forces do attack Ukraine, the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea “will not happen.”
The president concluded by telling Americans that “if we do not stand for freedom where it is at risk today, we’ll surely pay a steeper price tomorrow.” After adding a perfunctory “I’ll keep you informed,” Biden left the White House East Room without taking questions. He had spoken for approximately 11 minutes.
The US and its allies have warned for weeks that an invasion could happen at any time – while the Kremlin has denied any intention to attack its western neighbor. On Monday, the State Department ordered US embassy officials to relocate thier operations from the capital of Kiev to the western city of Lviv, closer to Poland.
Earlier Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared more open to diplomacy, saying he was willing to engage in negotiations with the US and NATO over limiting missile deployments in Europe. The Kremlin leader previously demanded that the US and its allies block Ukraine from joining the Atlantic alliance. However, that demand was rejected last month as a non-starter by both Washington and Brussels.
During a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin claimed the Western response to his demands “contain a number of proposals that we are not just open to discussing, but in fact we have proposed them to our partners in previous years: proposals on European security issues, on certain weaponry issues … and on military transparency.”
“We are ready to continue this joint work further,” Putin added. “We are also ready to follow the negotiation track but all issues must be considered as a whole, without being separated from the main Russian proposals.”
With Post wires
