In a statement released on Thursday, President Joe Biden tried to clarify his words from the previous day, in which he appeared to discriminate between a Russian invasion of Ukraine and a modest incursion.
Biden's remarks were his first since a news conference on Wednesday sparked outrage and had White House staffers rushing to clean up his remarks regarding the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
Biden warns Russia will "pay a heavy price"
White House aides have spent hours since Biden's comments trying to dispel concerns that he was giving Putin the green light for some sort of lesser action against Ukraine, despite the president later in the press conference trying to clarify that he was suggesting any response would require unity among NATO allies.
Biden was distinguishing between military and nonmilitary acts, such as cyberattacks that would be faced with a reciprocal reaction, according to Emily Horne, a spokesman for the National Security Council, in a tweet on Wednesday. Biden's statements during the news conference were met with skepticism and criticism from experts, as well as Republican opposition. With Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to meet with his Russian colleague in Geneva later this week, the uncertainty occurred at an unfavorable moment for the Biden administration, according to The Hill.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has reacted angrily to statements made by Vice President Joe Biden regarding Russia's "little invasion" into his nation. "There are no little intrusions, just as there are no minor losses and minimal sadness from the death of loved ones," Zelensky said on Twitter.
Russian forces are stationed along the border, but they deny any invasion plans. Moscow has issued a series of demands to the West, including that Ukraine not be allowed to join NATO and that the defense alliance ceases all military operations in eastern Europe.
As the US president predicted, Putin's move-in to Ukraine may have been an honest confession from the president of the United States. In fact, it hindered Blinken's efforts on this trip to portray the current crisis as a stark option for Russia between diplomacy and confrontation, with little room for negotiation or compromise in between.
Blinken raised the stakes even higher during his speech on Thursday afternoon, apparently to assuage the anxieties of the US allies gathered in Berlin. Rather than a "distant regional disagreement," he added, this posed a threat to world sovereignty and self-determination ideas.
The United States and its allies were ready for a new Cold War. On Friday, as Blinken travels to Geneva for a meeting with his colleague in Russia, their comments - and Biden's - will linger in the air, as per BBC News.
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Images reveal the huge military build-up in Ukraine
Hours after US President Joe Biden claimed Russia's Vladimir Putin now had to do something, new evidence of a massive military build-up within striking distance of Ukraine in preparation for a nine-month war has surfaced.
A battlegroup is deployed at Voronezh base, roughly 200 miles (330 kilometers) from the Ukraine border, with rows of tank artillery and support equipment massed at Yelnya, 77 miles (125 kilometers) from Russia's border with Belarus, according to satellite pictures from January 19.
A second set of photographs shows military equipment being assembled on a couple of facilities in the region: Klintsky and Klimovo, which are barely 18 miles (30 kilometers) from the Belarusian border and 31 miles (50 kilometers) from Russia's Ukraine border.
Since Moscow moved up to 100,000 troops, as well as tanks and missiles, close to the border at the end of last year, the region has been on edge, but tensions have risen in recent days as a surge in equipment and troop movements, including military police, from the country's extreme east has increased tensions.
Families of military personnel have been informed that their loved ones might be separated from their families for up to nine months after being relocated hundreds of miles to the west and that they could expect to be involved in a fight in Ukraine.
Multiple rocket launchers, battle vehicles, communication trucks, and general transportation trucks were seen crossing the Russian border to Belarusian outposts in Gomel and Rechitsa, all of which are within striking distance of Ukraine at less than 37 miles (60 kilometers) from the border.
Although Russia and Belarus have stated that the deployment of troops and equipment is tied to hurriedly organized joint military exercises between the two nations, many analysts have criticized the explanation as a prelude to the West's coming invasion of Ukraine, Daily Mail reported.
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