U.S. President Joe Biden said on the 19th that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of martial law reflects the situation in which the Russian military is on the defensive once morest Ukraine.
“I think Vladimir Putin (Russian President) is in an incredibly difficult situation,” Biden said to a reporter at the White House who asked what the martial law in some areas of Ukraine meant on the same day.
“What this shows me is that the only means possible for him[Putin]is to be cruel to Ukrainian citizens,” Biden said.
“This is to scare[the Ukrainians]into submission,” he said, but “they won’t give in.”
■ U.S. State Department judges martial law ‘null at source’
The U.S. State Department announced on the same day (19th) that Russian President Putin’s declaration of martial law has no effect.
Vedant Patel, senior deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said at a briefing on the same day that Russia had no legal rights over these territories, emphasizing that they were “sovereign territory” in Putin.
“It doesn’t matter what the Kremlin says, whatever it does, or whether it issues a decree,” Patel said.
“Anything that Russia makes regarding these areas is illegal,” he said.
Earlier on the same day, Russian President Putin announced that martial law would come into effect on the 20th following declaring martial law in four provinces: Kherson, Zaporiza, Donetsk and Luhansk.
The area is Ukrainian territory, which was annexed by the Russian government this month following a referendum led by the local pro-Russian administrative authorities last month.
President Putin also imposed restrictions on movement in eight regions, including the Krm Peninsula (Crimea) and the Russian mainland bordering Ukraine.
At the same time, a ‘response’ posture was issued for border areas across Russia and an ‘altitude alert’ was issued for central and southern regions. ‘Ready’ posture applied to all other regions
This is Jongsu Oh from VOA News.
