Biden maintains US forces will not enter Ukraine
Weeks of diplomatic entreaties by President Joe Biden and a promise to impose crippling sanctions failed to stop a brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. Biden now faces mounting pressure to answer for his administration’s efforts and explain how allies might avoid a punishing war on Europe’s borders.
The president leveled the White House’s most substantial penalties yet one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would undertake a “special military operation” to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine.
Sweeping financial sanctions and export controls would profoundly affect Russia’s economy, financial system, and access to critical technology, Biden said, promising to make Putin an international pariah. He also said he never believed deterrence would prove effective.
“No one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happenwing,” Biden said at the White House. “This could take time, and we have to show resolve so he knows what’s coming and so the people of Russia know what he’s brought on them. That’s what this is all about.”
But the president also warned that Putin could extend his assault further.
“He has much larger ambitions than Ukraine. He wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union,” Biden said in the East Room. “That’s what this is about.”
Days earlier, Biden had dispatched Vice President Kamala Harris to the Munich Security Conference to meet with foreign leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and explain the White House's response.
Zelenskyy, who left his country for just a few hours, delivered a blistering address accusing trans-Atlantic leaders of adopting an “appeasement” policy toward Russia that had allowed the crisis on Ukraine’s borders to escalate, a nod toward a troubling period from Europe's past.
A feeling of disbelief weighed over Ukraine as Biden defended his plans in the wake of Russia's attack.
In Kyiv, Yegor Chernev, a representative from Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party and chairman of the permanent delegation of Ukraine to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, said Ukraine was awaiting a steeper response.
“We expect REAL sanctions,” Chernev told the Washington Examiner, calling for Russia to be cut from the SWIFT bank-to-bank messaging system and restrictions on the assets of the country’s oligarchs and top officials.
And facing the overmatch of the Kremlin’s offensive, Zelenskyy said he would provide weapons to citizens who wanted to defend the country as Russian forces rolled in.
Roman Fontana, a combat veteran of Iraq and civilian-military adviser to Ukraine, told the Washington Examiner that civilians were already picking up arms.
“For the Ukrainians, this is an existential fight. They are fighting for their survival,” Fontana said, adding that many Ukrainians were prepared to mount a long-term resistance campaign.
“They’re prepared. They’ve had go bags ready. They’ve stockpiled. They’ve been ready for this for a number of years,” he said. “And they’re kind of at the point now that they’re like, ‘Well, let’s just get on with it.’”
Uljana Zamaslo, an English teacher in Lviv, said civilians were preparing for an imminent war as Russia began moving troops into separatist-backed regions of Ukraine last week.
“People have been lining up to collect guns that are being given out, weapons that are being given out to the Territorial Defense organizations,” Zamaslo said. “People are saying, ‘OK, I went through my training. I’m ready to do my job.’”
“It’s nice to see that the plan that people were not all that certain about when it is being tested in this way, it functions,” she added.
But in a nod to the larger geostrategic puzzle, Zamaslo urged Biden “to finish off the Russian economy while China is still thinking if it should assist its ally.”
A senior U.S. Defense official warned that the strikes would continue to escalate.
“We still believe … they have every intention of basically decapitating the government and installing their own
method of governance,” the official said, adding that the Defense Department had “observed missiles being fired from both land- and sea-based platforms.”
Roughly 7,000 service members were deployed to Germany, though Biden has maintained that U.S. forces will not enter Ukraine.
Washington has lent sparse support to Ukraine in the years since Russia invaded Crimea, cautious of wading into a protracted conflict between Moscow and Kyiv. With Washington’s deterrence in tatters, Biden, who as vice president helped oversee Ukraine policy in 2014, is being called on to escalate his approach.
Some believe the U.S. should arm Ukrainian insurgents to render the costs of Moscow’s assault prohibitive.
“Given the right equipment and tactics, Ukraine can dramatically reduce the chances of a successful invasion,” wrote Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defense minister, in an op-ed for the Atlantic Council. “By combining serving military units with combat veterans, reservists, territorial defense units, and large numbers of volunteers, Ukraine can create tens of thousands of small and highly mobile groups capable of attacking Russian forces. This will make it virtually impossible for the Kremlin to establish any kind of administration over occupied areas or secure its lines of supply.”
The White House has not said whether Washington is prepared to do this and did not respond to questions. ★