President Joe Biden said Thursday that NATO would respond if Russian President Vladimir Putin used weapons on mass destruction in his unprovoked attack on Ukraine.
‘We would respond if he uses it,’ Biden said, referring to Putin. ‘The nature of our response would depend on the nature of use.’
Biden spoke to reporters following a meeting with his North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) colleagues in Brussels on Thursday.
The President was initially asked if the US had military intelligence to suggest that Russia would use chemical weapons in Ukraine, to which Biden said he could not discuss military intelligence.
Biden spoke to reporters after a marathon of summit meetings with the European Union, G-7 partners and NATO allies in Brussels on Thursday. On Friday, he will travel to Poland.
The US and allies were able to accomplish all three of Biden’s major goals in Brussels.
‘First, to support Ukraine with military and humanitarian assistance. Second was to impose the most significant most significant economic sanctions regime ever, in order to cripple Putin’s economy and punish him for his actions. Third, was to fortify the eastern flank of our NATO allies who were obviously very, very concerned and somewhat worried what would happen,’ said Biden.
The President also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin underestimated the western alliance.
According to Biden, Putin ‘was banking on NATO being split, he did not think we could sustain this cohesion. NATO has never, never been more united than we are today,’ he said.
Biden also said that Russia should be expelled from the G20 group of nations, and that if the other G20 nations did not support expelling Russia from the group that he would make the case for Ukraine to participate in the meetings.
‘The single most important thing for us it stay unified and the world to continue to focus on what a brute this guy [Putin] is and all the innocent people’s lives that will be lost and ruined and what’s going on,’ Biden said.
‘If you’re Putin and you think that Europe is going to crack in a month or six weeks or two months, why not. They can take anything for another month, but the reason I asked for the meeting, we have to stay fully, totally united.’
When speaking about the severe sanctions US and its allies have put on Russia, Biden said the topic was part of the reason he called for the NATO meeting.
‘After a month, we will sustain what we’re doing, not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year. That’s what will stop him.’
During the news conference, Biden also announced a range of new sanctions against Russia that will target the majority of the Duma and Russian elites, and that the US would welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and provide $1 billion in humanitarian aid.
The money will pay for food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other forms of assistance.
The commitment to welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees has no particular time frame/ The White House did not announce specifics on how it will process these refugees, and Administration officials said specifics will be shared ‘in the coming weeks.
Over 3.5 million people have fled since Russia invaded Ukraine a month ago to date, according to the United Nations. The majority of the refugees have traveled to nearby countries, with more than 2 million people going to stay in Poland.
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