Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin spoke at a videoconference summit.
On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden warned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that if Ukraine attacks again, his country’s response will be harsher than in 2014, when Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine.
This was indicated by the White House National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, after a virtual summit between Biden and Putin in which the American leader was “direct and frank” with the Russian about the measures that the United States will take if Russia takes carried out a military incursion in Ukraine.
“President Biden looked President Putin in the eye today and told him that there are things that we did not do in 2014, and that we are prepared to do now,” Sullivan said at a press conference at the presidential mansion after the summit.
Sullivan did not want to specify all the measures that the United States would take in that case, but he did reiterate that the White House “would respond with strong economic measures.”
In addition, the US would “provide more additional defensive materials to the Ukrainians” than it does now, and “fortify its NATO allies on the eastern flank with additional capabilities in response to a military escalation” by Russia.
He specified that if Russia attacks Ukraine, as the West fears, Eastern European countries such as Romania and Poland “will be even more concerned about the security and territorial integrity of their countries,” and they may request more equipment and “additional deployments” of US troops. in the zone.
“We would respond positively to those things in case there is a (Russian) incursion into Ukraine,” Sullivan added.
Biden’s adviser also assured that, if such an attack occurs, the future of the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which will transport gas from Russia to Germany through the bottom of the Baltic Sea, will be at stake, and cited talks with Berlin on the matter.
“If Vladimir Putin wants to see gas flowing through that pipeline, he may not want to take the risk of invading Ukraine,” Sullivan said.
He added that the fact that there is still no gas flowing through that pipeline is an “advantage” for the West in its pressure on Russia not to attack Ukraine, and that the White House has had “in-depth talks” with the incoming and outgoing governments. from Germany on the subject.
The White House is already working on a package of strong economic sanctions with European partners and Ukraine itself to dissuade Putin from an eventual attack on that country contiguous with Russia, on whose borders between 70,000 and 94,000 Russian soldiers are concentrated, according to US Intelligence and Kiev Intelligence.
The US believes that Russia could attack or invade Ukraine with some 175,000 soldiers, and Kiev estimates that the most likely moment of a new Russian aggression would be at the end of January 2022. (I)
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