President Joe Biden harshly condemned Russia over its invasion of Ukraine Thursday, calling the military operation a “brutal assault”.
Speaking in a televised address from the White House, Biden accused his Russian counterpart of planning a “premeditated attack” far in advance.
The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine without provocation, without justification, without necessity. This is a premeditated attack.”
“Vladimir Putin has been planning this for months.”
“He moved more than 175,000 troops and military equipment to positions along the Ukrainian border.”
“He rejected every good faith effort the United States and our allies made…through dialogue to avoid needless conflict and avert human suffering. For weeks, we have been warning that this would happen. And now, it is unfolding largely as we predicted.”
"Over the past week, Russia has perpetrated cyber attacks against the Ukraine. We've seen staged political theater in Moscow - outlandish, baseless claims that Ukraine was about to invade and launch a war against Russia, that Ukraine was prepared to use chemical weapons."
"We saw a flagrant violation of international law in attempting to create two new so-called republics on Ukrainian territory."
“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences.”
“Today, I’m authorizing additional strong sanctions and new limitations on what can be exported to Russia. This will impose tremendous costs on the Russian economy both immediately and over time.”
“We have purposely designed these sanctions to maximize the long-term impact on Russia and to minimize the impact on the United States and our allies.”
"We will limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds, and yen."
The president vowed that US involvement in the conflict would be limited to sanctions against Russia and financial support for Ukraine, emphasizing that the US would directly intervene in the conflict. US forces deployed in the region would simply 'reassure' NATO powers of America's commitment to the alliance, Biden said.
"Our forces are not be and will not be engaged in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine. Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine, but to defend our NATO allies and reassure those allies in the East."
Biden further promised to make Russia's president Vladimir Putin an international 'pariah', and target countries which condone the invasion.
"Putin will be a pariah on the international stage. Any nation that countenances Russia's naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association."
Biden accused Putin of seeking to reestablish the Soviet Union.
"He has much larger ambitions than the Ukraine. He wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union. That's what this is about. His ambitions are completely contrary to the place where the rest of the world has arrived."