Feb 25, 2022: According to a report by AFP, Russia’s Vladimir Putin will become “a pariah on the international stage” following his country’s invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden said, adding he had “no plans” to talk with his counterpart.
Unveiling a new round of sanctions against Russia. Biden said, “Any nation that countenances Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association,” Russia’s invasion “was never about genuine security concerns on their part,” Biden added. “It was always about naked aggression, about Putin’s desire for empire, by any means necessary.”
Meanwhile, according to a report by Al Jazeera, the U.S sanctions target four Russian banks that hold more than $1 trillion in assets, including the country’s largest bank.
Thursday’s measures did not target the Russian president personally, but Biden said sanctioning Putin himself is “on the table”.
European countries began imposing sanctions on Russia over the invasion on Thursday, with the UK targeting dozens of Russian banks, businesses and wealthy elites and banning Russia’s national airline Aeroflot from the country’s airspace.
Ukrainian officials have said fighting is taking place on the ground as well with Russian forces capturing the former nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, in the country’s north, on Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared martial law late on Wednesday, and pledged that Ukrainians would defend themselves against the invasion.
Biden said the US will work to stablise the energy market and minimise the effects of the crisis on fuel costs in the US. Russia is one of the world’s top producers of oil and natural gas.
“I know this is hard and that Americans are already hurting. I will do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump,” Biden said. “But this aggression cannot go unanswered. If it did, the consequences for America would be much worse.”
Biden also reiterated Washington’s commitment to defend Eastern European NATO countries, three of which share borders with Ukraine. Members of the alliance have a collective defence pact.
The US president said American forces will not fight in Ukraine, which is not a NATO member. He underscored that the US had sent additional troops to Europe over the past week, announcing the deployment of forces already on the continent to “NATO’s eastern flank allies, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania”.
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