Biden vows to back Ukraine despite West’s economic toll
MADRID — President Joe Biden vowed Thursday that the United States and NATO would support Ukraine for as long as necessary to repel Russia’s invasion, despite waves of economic pain rolling through world markets and voters’ homes, saying it was the Kremlin that had miscalculated in its aggression, and not the West in opposing it.
Speaking at a news conference at the close of a NATO summit in Madrid, Biden said that Americans and the rest of the world would have to pay more for gasoline and energy as a price of containing Russian aggression. How long? “As long as it takes, so Russia cannot in fact defeat Ukraine and move beyond Ukraine,” he said.
But his remarks underscored the kaleidoscope of problems he and other NATO leaders face in keeping their people committed to backing Ukraine with money, weapons and sanctions against Russia, despite the damage it is doing to Western economies and an uncertain outcome.
“You can already see in the media that interest is going down, and that is also affecting the public, and the public is affecting the politicians,” said Ann Linde, Sweden’s foreign minister. “So it is our responsibility to keep Ukraine and what Russia is doing high up on our agenda. We’ve seen this so many times — you have a catastrophe, you have a war, and it just continues, but it slides away.”
The 30 member states of NATO capped an important, even transformative summit in Madrid this week, taking the first step to admitting Sweden and Finland, emphasizing their unity in support of Ukraine and approving plans to markedly increase the alliance’s forces in countries on its eastern flank, closest to Russia and its ally Belarus. The decisions, all prompted by the Russian invasion, are expected to strengthen the alliance while extending its border with Russia significantly.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia set out to fragment NATO and prevent its expansion, but Biden said that before the war began, he warned Putin that if he invaded Ukraine, “NATO would not only get stronger, but would get more united, and we would see the democracies in the world stand up and oppose his aggression and defend the rules-based order.”
But he and the leaders face economic crises, division at home and increasingly weary voters. Fuel prices are soaring, driven by the war, high inflation and Western efforts to punish Moscow through its main exports, oil and gas.
Ukraine’s leaders continue to plead for more arms, delivered faster. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressing NATO leaders this week, said Ukraine needed some $5 billion a month just to keep his government functioning.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine appears to have broken through the other side’s lines in a significant way in recent days, despite heavy bombardment and combat in the eastern Donbas region and parts of southern Ukraine. Both sides are badly depleted, having suffered heavy casualties and equipment losses.
After repeated Ukrainian attacks — including with powerful, newly arrived Western weapons — the last Russian troops retreated by speedboats overnight from Snake Island in the Black Sea, which Russia had seized and used to menace the Ukrainian coast.
But it was unclear whether Ukraine would be able to reoccupy the island, which could affect the control of shipping lanes near Odesa. Russia has blockaded Odesa and other ports, preventing the export of millions of tons of grain and contributing to a global food crisis.
Neither side may be able to hold the island in the near future, as Russian warships are kept at bay by Ukrainian missiles but still patrol the Black Sea, alongside submarines, in greater numbers than Ukraine can sink.