“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences,” he said.
The President’s announcement came after he spent over an hour discussing the unfolding crisis in Ukraine with G7 leaders,including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz,French President Emmanuel Macron of France,Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Another summit with NATO will be convened tomorrow.
It remains to be seen if the latest measures will put the brakes on Putin’s attack,which US officials view as a deliberate attempt to topple Ukraine’s western-leaning,democratically elected government.
One key measure that has been considered by the White House - to cut Russia off from the SWIFT global banking system - did not form part of the latest sanctions,despite calls from officials such as Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister Dmytro Kuleba to ban them from the system.
SWIFT is used by over 11,000 financial institutions around the world to send secure messages and payment orders. As there is no globally accepted alternative,removing Russia from the system would make it nearly impossible for financial institutions to send money in or out of the country,thereby hurting Russian companies and their foreign customers.
Asked why it wasn’t included,Biden said the financial sanctions outlined “exceed SWIFT” and that cutting off Russia from the global system is “always an option - but that is not a position that the rest of Europe wishes to take”.
Cities,towns and villages across Ukraine have been bombarded by Russia’s military,forcing the nation’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to introduce martial law across as he urged his citizens to remain calm.
Putin’s actions were the chilling fulfillment of predictions US national security officials had been making for weeks,even in the face of scepticism that an all-out incursion was imminent.
As early as November,America was privately warned its allies in Europe that Putin had plans to invade Ukraine,sharing intel on how Russia was planning to double troop numbers and where was planning to position artillery as well as air,ground and sea forces.
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Moments after the first explosions were heard in Ukraine,Zelensky had phoned Joe Biden,urging his US counterpart to call on world leaders to speak out against Russia’s “flagrant aggression” and to stand with the people of Ukraine.
Biden has already come under fire for his response,particularly from Republicans whe blamed him for not doing enough to deter Putin sooner.
“There’s no doubt that weakness leads to war,” Congressman Brian Mast,a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee,tweeted as Russian tanks rolled through Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden ordered Army troops of the 82nd Airborne Division into eastern Europe as Vladimir Putin has amassed some 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border.Credit:AP
“Putin once said the collapse of the Soviet empire was the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe’ of the past century for Russia. For America,President Biden may be the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of this century.“
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Others,like Democrat Senator Mark Warner,chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,argued that pre-emptive sanctions may have been of little benefit.
“This is a guy at 69 years old who’s got an obsession with recreating a greater Russia and we’ve been concerned for quite some time that the normal rules of the road would not constrain him,” Warner told CNN. “I don’t believe preemptive sanctions would have changed anything. In fact preemptive sanctions might have split apart the NATO alliance.”