Change of tone at the White House. If he repeated that a Russian invasion of Ukraine remained “completely possible”, Joe Biden tried to play appeasement. In a short speech on Tuesday, the American president assured that he wanted to leave “every chance to diplomacy”, insisting: “The United States is not seeking to destabilize Russia. »
A beginning of withdrawal of Russian soldiers to the Ukrainian border mentioned Tuesday by Moscow “would be positive” but “we have not checked at this stage” its implementation, he added, affirming on the contrary that these troops, now estimated at “more than 150,000”, remained in “a threatening position”.
The Democratic president alternated, in a short speech, between signs of openness and messages of firmness. “Citizens of Russia, you are not our enemies”, he said, assuring that neither the United States nor NATO were a “threat” for this country and had no intention to install missiles in Ukraine. “There are real ways to address our respective security concerns,” he said of Russia.
“American power” mobilized if Moscow attacked a NATO ally
Joe Biden, however, said that in the event of an invasion of Ukraine, the sanctions were “ready”, and would weigh heavily on Russian finance and businesses. The United States is also “ready to respond” to attacks that might target them and their allies, for example in the form of cyberattacks.
He also argued that while no American soldiers would fight in Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO, the United States was ready to use “all its might” to defend “every inch territory” of a member state of the military alliance. By invading Ukraine, Russia “would harm itself”, he said, assuring that Westerners were “united and determined as ever” to defend their “values” in the face of the threat posed by Moscow.
