President Biden said Friday that he’s “convinced” Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine — and warned of a massive assault on the Eastern European country’s capital city.
“We have reason to believe that Russian forces are planning to — intending to attack Ukraine in the coming week — in the coming days,” Biden said in remarks from the White House Roosevelt Room. “We believe that they will target Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people.”
When asked by a reporter, “Do you have any indication about whether President Putin has made a decision on whether to invade?” Biden answered: “As of this moment, I’m convinced he’s made the decision. We have reason to believe that.”
Moments later, a second reporter asked: “You are convinced that President Putin is going to invade Ukraine? Is that what you just said a few moments ago?”
“Yes, I did,” the president answered. “Yes.”
“Is diplomacy off the table then?” the reporter followed up.
“No,” Biden responded. “Until he does [invade], diplomacy is always a possibility.”
In his prepared remarks, Biden called out Russia for pushing “fabricated claims” that a Ukrainian invasion of two Moscow-backed separatists enclaves was imminent, rather than military action by the Kremlin. He also ripped Russian state media for making “phony allegations” that Ukraine was carrying out a “genocide” in the east of the country.
“It defies basic logic to believe the Ukrainians would choose this moment, with well over 150,000 troops arrayed on its border, to escalate the years-long conflict,” said Biden, who praised Ukraine’s military for acting with what he called “great judgment and, I might add, restraint” for refusing to allow Russia to “bait them into war.”
“We’re calling out Russia’s plans loudly and repeatedly, not because we want a conflict,” Biden said, “but because we’re doing everything in our power to remove any reason that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine and prevent them from moving.”
“Make no mistake: If Russia pursues its plans, it will be responsible for a catastrophic and needless war of choice,” Biden went on. “The United States and our allies are prepared to defend every inch of NATO territory from any threat to our collective security as well.”
Biden spoke nearly an hour later than scheduled amid fresh reports of explosions in the pro-Russia breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine — bolstering fear of Kremlin-orchestrated “false flag” attacks to dubiously justify an invasion of Ukraine.
“There are many issues that divide our nation and our world. Standing up to Russian aggression is not one of them,” Biden said. “The American people united. Europe is united. The transatlantic community is united. Our political parties in this country are united. The entire free world is united.”
Shortly before Biden’s remarks, he spoke by phone with a group of leaders from NATO countries, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“They pledged to continue pursuing diplomacy to de-escalate tensions while ensuring readiness to impose swift, coordinated economic costs on Russia should it choose further conflict,” the White House said in a readout of the call, which also featured the leaders of Canada, Italy, Romania and Poland.
But the precise sanctions aren’t yet decided upon, White House adviser Daleep Singh told reporters.
“At this point, we are converging on the final package,” Singh said.
This is an excerpt from the New York Post.
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