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Joe Biden (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden addressed the press Thursday afternoon, February 24, to provide America’s response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The commander-in-chief made a number of factors very clear: Russia is completely the aggressor, and this assault got here with out provocation, justification, or necessity, regardless of any claims on the contrary from President Vladimir Putin. The U.S. and many of the remainder of the world condemn this aggression.
Joe Biden (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Many nations are united in punishing Moscow over time with harsh financial sanctions. The president additionally vowed to defend each inch of NATO territory with each ounce of America’s army would possibly. But Russia isn’t gobbling up a NATO nation immediately, and there’s no assure it plans to. All presents of greatest needs, ethical assist, and humanitarian assist apart, President Biden additionally made it fairly clear that Ukraine fights alone.
A United Front?
Today’s speech got here after a convention name with the leaders of different G7 nations. All agree, Biden stated, that they may restrict Russia’s means to be a part of the worldwide financial system. All Russian belongings within the U.S. will probably be frozen, and the nation’s high-tech imports from across the globe will probably be minimize in half, theoretically crippling Putin’s choices for army development and enchancment. Some of probably the most highly effective impacts will come over time, the president claims. In responding to press questions after his preliminary remarks, Biden said explicitly that, sure, the sanctions in opposition to Russia can have at the very least as heavy an impression as Russia’s bullets and missiles in Ukraine.
The commander-in-chief additionally promised that American troops are heading to NATO’s eastern-most member nations – those almost definitely to face Russian aggression ought to Ukraine not satiate the Bear’s starvation. But meaning little to the troopers and civilians at the moment combating a superior army drive on their very own doorsteps, as Ukraine isn’t part of NATO. This response, after all, is exactly why Putin fought in opposition to the nation’s inclusion within the alliance all alongside. NATO allies will probably be defended, “but our forces are not and will not be engaged in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine,” the president declared.
As for the message that the remainder of the world stands firmly collectively in opposition to Russia, the president’s solutions to press questions poked sufficient holes to sink it. When one reporter requested if there was disagreement amongst allies about Russia being expelled by SWIFT – the worldwide banking system that acts as middleman and executor of economic transactions between banks worldwide – he defined that it’s all the time an choice, but it isn’t the place the remainder of Europe needs to take proper now. When requested if he had urged China to hitch within the sanctions in opposition to Russia, his non-answer was reply sufficient: “I’m not prepared to comment on that at the moment.”
Whether these sanctions will do what the president claims they may over time stays to be seen, but it appears unlikely they’ll save any lives in Europe immediately. Biden says we’ll simply need to reassess issues in a month or so to see how the sanctions are working, but if it takes a month or extra to see any impact, there is probably not a Ukraine left to save lots of.
~ Read extra from James Fite.
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