In a recent phone call between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, the American President urged Russia to de-escalate the military situation with Ukraine.
Biden made clear that The U.S. and its foreign allies would act “decisively” if Russia were to invade its neighbor. Putin didn’t seem terribly concerned with the warning, claiming to be generally satisfied with the phone call.
A Kremlin spokesperson warned the United States by saying that sanctions on Russia would be “a colossal mistake that would entail grave consequences,” appearing to threaten the world’s greatest superpower.
Biden in the past said that he would not deploy troops to bolster Ukrainian defense, but would however impose harsh sanctions if Russia were to invade. Placing these two puzzle pieces together it would seem that the Kremlin does have some intention to launch an invasion, after all, sanctions would not occur unless military action was taken against Ukraine.
Putin allegedly told Biden that “Russia needs legally binding agreements on security guarantees,” urging NATO to not accept Ukraine as an ally. As of right now, Biden has not taken any strong position on Ukrainian President Zelensky’s request to join the global allyship but certainly seems to oppose any sort of war.
The situation began when 175,000 Russian troops were deployed to the border of Ukraine, but Russia has been deploying troops to the border for years – why is this any different?
Well, in the past smaller amounts of troops were deployed in broad daylight as an apparent scare tactic. The recent deployment of troops happened under the cover of night. If scaring the neighboring country was the goal, Russia would want the deployment to be blatant and obvious, not stealthy.