President Joe Biden on Thursday denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to mount a full-scale invasion of Ukraine while defending the efficacy of a new slate of Western sanctions meant to curb Moscow’s aggression.
In a question-and-answer session with reporters following an address at the White House, Biden repeatedly stressed that the penalties by the United States and European allies would “take time” to influence Putin’s behavior — even as a senior Pentagon official warned that Russia’s rapid assault was aimed at decapitating Ukraine’s democratic government.
“This is going to take time. It’s not going to occur — he’s going to say, ‘Oh, my God, these sanctions are coming. I’m going to stand down,’” Biden said, referring to Putin. “He’s going to test the resolve of the West to see if we stay together, and we will. We will, and it will impose significant costs on him.”
Biden also acknowledged that “no one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening” in Ukraine, adding: “We have to show resolve so [Putin] knows what is coming and so the people of Russia know what he’s brought on them.”
Biden went on to express confidence that the West’s measures would ultimately prove effective, arguing that “the threat of the sanctions and imposing the sanctions and seeing the effect of the sanctions are two different things.”
“[Putin is] going to begin to see the effect of the sanctions. … It will so weaken his country that he’ll have to make a very, very difficult choice of whether to continue to move toward being a second-rate power or, in fact, respond,” Biden said.
Despite the severity of the latest sanctions — the third package announced by the United States this week — Biden’s remarks regarding their potency and Putin’s potential response could frustrate officials in Kyiv, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced several urgent steps as his country became consumed by war.
In an address Thursday morning, Zelenskyy declared that Russia was on a “path of evil” akin to Nazi Germany, announcing that the Ukrainian government had severed diplomatic relations with Moscow and offering to supply weapons to any citizens ready to help defend the homeland.
“This morning, dear citizens, this morning has gone down in history. But it is a different history for us and for Russia,” Zelenskyy said, hours after Putin announced a “special military operation” against Ukraine.
“Ukraine is defending itself and shall not cede its freedom, whatever they might think in Moscow,” Zelenskyy said. “To Ukrainians, independence and the right to live on our land is the highest value. Russia has attacked our state in a cunning way, in the way that Nazi Germany did during the second World War. From today, our countries are on opposing sides of world history.”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine “is being attacked from the air, from the north to the south,” and that the Ukrainian military was “engaged in heavy fighting, fending off attacks in Donbas, in the north, in the east and in the south.”
Donbas refers to an eastern area of Ukraine that borders Russia and consists of two breakaway regions held by Moscow-backed separatists. Putin announced Monday that Russia would recognize the regions as independent and ordered troops to move into Donbas, setting the stage for Russia’s fuller invasion early Thursday.
Zelenskyy also said that the Russian forces who “came to our land” had “sustained heavy casualties” during the fighting, warning that “they will be even heavier.”
As the invasion intensified Thursday morning, the scenes of warfare in Ukraine were unlike any observed in modern Europe since the end of World War II. Videos circulating on social media appeared to show Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine from its northern border with Belarus, while others captured a dogfight between Russian and Ukrainian fighter jets unfolding above the capital of Kyiv.
A representative for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a video update that Russia “continues to conduct aggressive actions along the entire line” of the Russia-Ukraine border, while using airfields in Belarus to carry out “demonstration activities along the northern part” of Ukraine’s frontier.
Zelenskyy also warned that Russian troops “are trying to seize” the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the abandoned city of Pripyat. “Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 will not be repeated. … This is a declaration of war against the whole of Europe,” he tweeted.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Myhailo Podolyak later said the plant, which was the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history, had been overtaken by Russian troops.
Podolyak also said at a news briefing that Russian troops “have taken an operational pause and are regrouping,” although “positional fighting continues almost throughout the country” near Ukraine’s borders with Russia and Belarus.
In video updates, Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to “stay calm” and remain at home if possible. “The whole sector of defense and security is working. No panic. We are strong. We are ready for everything. We will win over everybody because we are Ukraine,” he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described the Russian assault — which saw missile strikes in several cities, including Kyiv — as “a full-scale attack from multiple directions.” But he insisted that Ukraine’s defense “has not collapsed,”tweeting that the country “stands with both feet on the ground & continues to defend itself.”
In the hours immediately after the invasion, Zelenskyy tweeted that he was “creating an anti-Putin coalition” through conversations with fellow world leaders: Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Council President Charles Michel, Polish President Andrzej Duda, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Ukrainian officials also shared with Western allies a document obtained by POLITICO that detailed a lengthy list of “suggested actions” to take against Russia. Those included an embargo on Russian oil and gas, blocking all assets and transactions from a host of Russian banks, removing Russia from the United Nations Security Council, and banning flights from Russian airlines.
In addition, Ukraine asked partner nations to ban the provision of any goods or services to Russian businesses in the oil and gas sector, nuclear energy sector, and coal mining sector. Ukraine called for another ban on U.S. companies “supplying and updating software in the interests of Russian consumers.”
The document also featured a five-item “to do list” seemingly put forth by Kuleba. The list requested that Western nations impose “[d]evastating sanctions on Russia NOW;” “fully isolate Russia by all means [and] in all formats;” and provide additional weapons, equipment, financial assistance and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.
Betsy Woodruff Swan contributed to this report.
