Biden says Russian invasion of Ukraine still 'distinctly possible' despite Russian troop pullback claim
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President Joe Biden delivered his first comments about the situation in Ukraine directly to the American people on Tuesday.
Biden spoke from the East Room of the White House during a day of continued negotiations and developments over the pending crisis.
“We are ready with diplomacy,” Biden said. “And we are ready to respond decisively to a Russian attack on Ukraine, which is still very much a possibility.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is ready for talks with the U.S. and NATO on limits for missile deployments and military transparency, a second signal Tuesday of a potential tension release in the conflict between Russia and the West over Ukraine.
Just hours earlier, Russia said it would send home some troops from military exercises, which have raised fears of an invasion of Ukraine.
President Joe Biden addressed the developing situation from the White House on Tuesday afternoon, starting at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Speaking after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said that while the U.S. and NATO rejected Moscow’s demand to keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of NATO, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back alliance forces from Eastern Europe, they have agreed to discuss some security measures already suggested by Russia.
Putin said Russia is ready to engage in talks on limiting the deployment of intermediate range missiles in Europe, transparency of drills and other confidence-building measures but emphasized the need for the West to heed Russia’s main demands.
Russia-Ukraine explained: Inside the crisis as US, allies await next move
Biden: Ways to address security concerns
Expressing some optimism that a diplomatic solution could be found, Biden said there are “real ways to address our respective security concerns.”
“We're proposing new arms control measures, new transparency measures, new strategic stability measures,” he said. The measures, he added, would apply to both Russia and to NATO allies in order to “advance our common security.”
But, Biden emphasized, the U.S. is not willing to sacrifice “basic principles,” including that nations have a right to sovereignty and can choose with whom they will associate.
“But that still leaves plenty of room for diplomacy and for de-escalation,” he said.
Moscow, however, has pushed for guarantees that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join the military alliance. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.
-- Maureen Groppe
Biden: Russian attack would be a 'self-inflicted wound'
Biden said while he agrees there's more room for diplomacy, he warned that if Russia chose to invade Ukraine it would be a "self-inflicted wound." He emphasized the U.S., NATO allies and Ukraine are not a threat to Russia and neither the U.S. or NATO have missiles in Ukraine and no plans to put any there.
"If Russia attacks Ukraine, it will be a war of choice or a war without cause or reason," he said. "The world will not forget that Russia chose needless death and destruction."
Biden expressed skepticism about reports that some Russian troops have been pulled back from Ukraine's border, underscoring U.S officials have yet to verify those details.
"Our analysts indicate that they remain very much in at threatening position," he said. "And the fact remains right now Russia has more than 150,000 troops in circling Ukraine and Belarus and along Ukraine's border and invasion remains distinctly possible."
-- Courtney Subramanian
Defense of NATO allies
Biden said the United States will defend its NATO allies if they come under attack.
“Make no mistake: the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power,” he said. “An attack against one NATO country is an attack against all of us.”
The president noted that the United States sent forces “to bolster NATO's eastern flank.” But he added the U.S. will not send American service members to fight in Ukraine but that the U.S. has provided the country with training, advice and intelligence.
-- Rebecca Morin
Maps and more: Where is Ukraine? Where are NATO members? A guide to post-Soviet eastern Europe
Biden: Potential consequences for Americans, as well
Biden warned there are potential consequences for Americans if Russia invades.
Defending democracy and liberty is not without cost, he said.
“I will not pretend this will be painless,” he said.
If energy costs rise, Biden said the administration will use what tools it has to protect consumers at the gas pump.
The U.S. is also prepared to respond to any cyber attacks on American businesses or on critical infrastructure, he said.
“We will respond forcefully,” he said.
-- Maureen Groppe
Biden: Invasion still 'distinctly possible'
Biden said the United States cannot trust the Russian defense minister's claims Tuesday that troops that had been taking part in military exercises near Ukraine’s border are being pulled back.
“That would be good,” Biden said. “But we have not yet verified that.”
Biden said the U.S. analysis indicates that the troops remain in a threatening position.
“Invasion remains distinctly possible,” he said.
-- Maureen Groppe
Vindman: Too many forces for a sigh of relief
“We're not nearly over the hump of this situation,” said Lt. Col. (ret’d) Alexander Vindman, the former director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Russia on the White House’s National Security Council during the Trump administration, told USA TODAY. “There are too many forces for anybody to kind of breathe a sigh of relief based on what might amount to, on one hand, either hollow rhetoric or on another hand a kind of denial and deception operation.”
“At the same time, I'm right there at the head of the line looking for lifelines – and certainly noting a couple of tepid lifelines – with regards to some of the rhetoric coming out of Moscow,” said Vindman, who previously served as the Political-Military Affairs Officer for Russia for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as an attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Vindman said there are some welcome indications based on Putin's interaction with his Foreign Minister and Minister of Defense, as well as the pledge to withdraw some forces. But, he added, “There's a little bit of smoke and mirrors there, to tell you the truth.”
Vindman said he was especially apprehensive about remarks made by the military general leading Russia’s National Defense Control Center, the operations center for its Ministry of Defense, who said that some of the southern and western military district forces would be returning back to their garrisons.
“The problem with that is that those are the ones that are right there anyway, so they don't have far to travel. Some of these units already just mere kilometers away,” Vindman said.
“And this doesn't account for the central and eastern military districts, the dozens of battle groups that came out of those districts,” Vindman said. “When those start to go back, that's when we could start to breathe a sigh of relief.”
-- Josh Meyer
Blinken to Lavrov: U.S. needs to see 'verifiable, credible, meaningful de-escalation'
The United States needs to see “verifiable, credible, meaningful de-escalation” of Russian action toward Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a call Tuesday.
Blinken also said he is still waiting for Russia’s written response to last month’s proposal from the U.S. and NATO about “concrete areas for discussion,” according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.
Blinken noted that Lavrov said a response “would be transmitted within the coming days,” according to Price.
Price also said Blinken emphasized that the U.S. is still looking for a diplomatic solution to “the crisis Moscow has precipitated” but remains concerned that Russia has the capacity to launch an invasion of Ukraine at any moment.
Blinken told Lavrov that further Russian aggression against Ukraine will be met with a “swift, severe, and united transatlantic response,” according to Price.
– Maureen Groppe
More: Biden threatens devastating sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine. Here's what that might look like.
Ukraine defense website, banks experience cyberattack
Ukraine's information security center said Tuesday that the country’s ministry of defense and at least two banks had come under cyberattack, shutting down websites and access to information and accounts.
The Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security did not attribute the attacks in an online posting, but suggested that Russia was responsible.
"It is not ruled out that the aggressor used tactics of little dirty tricks because its aggressive plans are not working out on a large scale," said the center, which is part of Ukraine’s culture ministry and works with U.S., British and NATO officials in Kyiv.
“During the last few hours, Privatbank has been under a massive DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack. Privat24 users report problems with payments and the application in general. Some users do not manage to log in to Privat24 at all, others do not have displayed the balance and recent transactions,” according to the Ukrainian Center’s website.
It said Oschadbank also has failures, and internet banking is down, and that the websites of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine were also attacked.
In a statement, Privatbank said it had “managed to eliminate the consequences of the DDOS attack and restore the stable operation of systems."
U.S. cybersecurity experts warned that a Russia cyberattack against Ukraine could take many forms, from full-scale takedowns to low-grade distributed denial-of-service attacks like those targeting the banks. DDoS attacks disrupt the normal flow of Internet traffic by overwhelming a target or its broader network.
Russia has used such DDoS attacks prior to some form of military action for more than a decade, including against Georgia in 2008 and, later, against Ukraine. Often, they are done prior to more aggressive cyberattacks, or as a way to disrupt communications prior to an invasion.
In Georgia in 2008, cybersecurity experts say, the attacks on its Internet infrastructure began days or even weeks before Russia’s military incursion, with coordinated barrages of millions of DDoS requests that overloaded and essentially shut down Georgian servers. The website of then-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, for instance, was knocked out of service for more than a day by multiple DDoS attacks.
– Josh Meyer and Karina Zaiets
Biden to address nation on Ukraine
President Joe Biden will briefly address the situation in Ukraine in afternoon remarks, the White House announced.
Biden will not announce new policy, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki. Instead, he will provide an update to the standoff.
“He will speak about the situation on the ground, the steps we have taken, the actions we are prepared to take, what’s at stake for the US and the world and how this may impact us at home,” Psaki tweeted.
Biden will reiterate that the United States is still looking for a diplomatic resolution, pointing to “multiple diplomatic off-ramps” already offered Russia by the U.S. and its allies.
“The United States continues to believe diplomacy and de-escalation are the best path forward, but is prepared for every scenario,” the White House said in a statement.
Biden is scheduled to speak from the East Room at 3:30 p.m.
– Maureen Groppe
More: Where is Ukraine? Where are NATO members? A guide to post-Soviet eastern Europe
Blinken speaks with Lavrov as Biden talks to Macron
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Tuesday morning, as efforts to de-escalate the military situation around Ukraine picked up.
The call with Russia’s foreign minister came hours after Moscow said it started pulling back some troop units taking part in military exercises near Ukraine’s border.
A senior State Department official provided little information on the call, other than that Blinken and Lavrov agreed to stay in touch when they last spoke.
Around the same time of Lavrov call, President Joe Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron from 10:11-11 a.m., according to the White House.
– Maureen Groppe
Russia announces troops will return to bases
Russia's defense ministry claimed Tuesday that it started pulling back some troop units taking part in military exercises near Ukraine's border, but it gave no specific details on where the troops were pulling back from, or how many.
Ukrainian officials said it was too early to tell whether the announcement reflected a genuine change of tone from Moscow following weeks of tensions over fears of a Russian invasion.
"As with all things Russia, actions speak louder than words," Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh told CNBC on Tuesday morning. "We're going to monitor everything that we see on the ground very carefully. And of course, our goal is peace and to uphold the principle that you can't redraw borders by force."
"If there's a troop or a tank that crosses the border, we're ready to impose the most severe sanctions ever levied on Russia in lockstep with our allies and partners," he said.
The apparent development came a day after Russia's foreign minister indicated the country was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that led to the Ukraine crisis – Europe's worst East-West standoff in decades – and western officials warned the attack could come at any time, signaling Wednesday as a possible invasion day.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly accused the West of causing undue panic over Russia's invasion threat, saying Ukraine's intelligence did not indicate an imminent threat. The fears of an invasion grew from the fact that Russia has massed more than 130,000 troops near Ukraine. Russia denies it has any invasions plans.
Biden threatens devastating sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine. Here's what that might look like.
Ukraine's leaders expressed skepticism about Russia's reported pullback.
"Russia constantly makes various statements," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. "That's why we have the rule: We won't believe when we hear, we'll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we'll believe in de-escalation."
Moscow wants guarantees that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join the military alliance. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.
The Kremlin has cast the U.S. warnings of an imminent attack as "hysteria" and "absurdity," and many Russians believe that Washington is deliberately stoking panic and fomenting tensions to trigger a conflict for domestic reasons.
Zelenskyy declared Wednesday would be a "day of national unity," calling on the country to display the blue-and-yellow flag and sing the national anthem.
What is a false flag? US says Russia may use the tactic to justify Ukraine invasion
Contributing: Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY; Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine: Joe Biden says Russian invasion still possible
