Search

Biden: US will not fight Russia

Biden slams Putin for recognizing breakaway regions, but the U.S. will not “fight Russia.”

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

President Joe Biden issued a warning on Tuesday that additional American troops would be posted to the region in response to reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered troops to enter Ukrainian border regions.

During a speech announcing sanctions against Russia, Biden said that Putin would be “carving out a big chunk of Ukraine” and had “authorized Russian forces to deploy into the regions.”

Biden was referring to Putin’s statement that he would recognize the breakaway territories of Donetsk and Luhansk as “republics.”

By treating those areas as states independent of Ukraine, Putin is “setting up a rationale to take more territory by force,” Biden said.

But despite the serious accusations against his Russian counterpart, the U.S. president emphasized that he has “no intention of fighting Russia” or of sending troops into Russian territory. Rather, he said he would send additional American troops to NATO ally countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

“We want to send an unmistakable message that the United States together with our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory and abide by the commitments we made,” Biden said, adding that “these are totally defensive moves on our part.”

Read  US Muslim group accuses Biden of 'war crimes' for refusing to impose arms embargo

Because Ukraine is not a NATO ally, U.S. troops will not be stationed in the country.

Although the U.S. will not send military support to Ukraine, Biden said that widespread sanctions against Russia signify the West’s disapproval of Putin’s moves.

“We’ve cut off Russia’s government from Western financing,” Biden said. “It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets.”

Israel has been caught in the middle of the Ukraine-Russia crisis, with Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister slamming the Jewish state for refusing to condemn Russia’s incursion into its territories.

While some senior government officials hinted that they would ally with the West on the issue of sanctions against Russia, Israel depends heavily on Russia, particularly with regard to anti-Israel forces in Syria, and is reticent to strain tensions with the world power.