On Tuesday, President Biden announced new economic sanctions against Russia and said an invasion of Ukraine was “beginning”.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of troops to two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine after recognizing them as independent on Monday,” reported Reuters.
The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, recently said “We believe what the Russians are planning will be extremely violent”. “It will cost the lives of Ukrainians and Russians, civilians and military personnel alike”.
In response to Russia’s recognition of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic, Biden said “Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors?”
“his is a flagrant violation of international law and demands a firm response from the international community,” he added during his speech.
The “first tranche” of sanctions was announced Tuesday afternoon. They will target “two Kremlin-backed banks and restrict Russia’s government from trading its debt on Western finance markets,” reported the New York Post.
“Starting tomorrow, and continuing in the days ahead, we will also impose sanctions on Russia’s elites and their family members,” Biden explained. “They share in the corrupt gains of the Kremlin policies and should share in the pain as well”.
On Twitter, Biden wrote “We are implementing full blocking sanctions on two large Russian financial institutions — VEB and their military bank. And we are implementing comprehensive sanctions on Russian sovereign debt”.
“That means we’ve cut off the Russian government from western financing. It can no longer raise money from the west — and cannot trade its new debt in our markets or European markets,” he added.
Biden also said he would authorize the deployment of troops and equipment to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are all members of NATO and former Soviet republics.
Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday, “I know Vladimir Putin very well, and he would have never done during the Trump Administration what he is doing now, no way!”
“If properly handled, there was absolutely no reason that the situation currently happening in Ukraine should have happened at all,” Trump continued.