WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a harsh new round of sanctions against Russia, just hours after Moscow launched an attack against Ukraine, plunging Europe into one of its gravest security crises since World War II.
Speaking from the White House, Biden criticized President Vladimir Putin for his “naked aggression against Ukraine” and vowed to make the Russian leader a “pariah on the international stage.”
“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said.
After weeks of touting a diplomatic solution, the invasion shifted Biden’s tone.
“There is a complete rupture right now in U.S.-Russian relations,” he said when asked by a reporter about relationship between the two nations.
The new sanctions restrict the export of some products from the U.S. to Russia and hit additional Russian financial institutions and elites with close ties to Putin.
NATO will also convene a summit on Friday, Biden said, to “map out the next steps.” Additional U.S. forces will also be deployed to Germany.
Biden announced an initial narrow round of sanctions against Russia on Tuesday after Putin moved troops into Moscow-backed breakaway regions in the eastern part of Ukraine, hoping to deter the Russian leader from launching a large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Biden warned then that more severe actions would be taken against Russia if Putin were to escalate the situation.
Thursday’s announcement stopped short of cutting Russia off from SWIFT, the Belgian financial messaging system that links more than 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries and territories. A move by the U.S. and Europe to kick Russia off SWIFT had been characterized by some financial experts as a nuclear option, with some warning it could have negative impacts on the global economy.
Biden said that European allies were opposed to kicking Russia off SWIFT, but argued that the sanctions announced this week were “more consequential” and said they could always revisit Russia’s access to SWIFT.
Moscow launched a broad attack on Thursday, bombing Ukrainian cities and infrastructure as Russian troops attempted to advance towards Kyiv. Oksana Markarova, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S., said that dozens of Ukrainian civilians have been killed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to take up arms in defense. The defense minister also announced that small arms would be distributed to all veterans and volunteers.
Biden has been adamant about not sending U.S. troops to Ukraine to fight Russia and is relying heavily on sanctions to punish Moscow.
But the president has also been presented with a menu of options for the U.S. to carry out massive cyberattacks designed to disrupt Russia’s ability to sustain its military operations in Ukraine — such as disrupting internet connectivity or shutting off electric power — according to four people familiar with the deliberations.
Biden said Thursday that the U.S. would be prepared to respond if Russia launched a cyberattack against U.S. companies or infrastructure.
Biden spoke to Zelenskyy and updated him on the steps that the U.S. and its partners were taking to “rally international condemnation.”
“He asked me to call on the leaders of the world to speak out clearly against President Putin’s flagrant aggression, and to stand with the people of Ukraine,” Biden said.
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