United States (US) President Joe Biden on Thursday announced what he called “devastating” sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine. Later, during a press conference, Biden said that he had approved the deployment of 7,000 troops to Germany as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) response.
“Today, I’m authorising additional strong sanctions and new limitations on what can be exported to Russia,” Biden announced as he blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for starting an unjustified war. “Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences,” he declared.
Biden stressed that the new set of sanctions is “purposefully designed these sanctions to maximize the long-term impact on Russia” and “impair” the Kremlin’s ability “to compete in a high-tech 21st-century economy.”
I spoke with the G7 leaders today, and we are in full agreement:
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 24, 2022
We will limit Russia’s ability to be part of the global economy.
We will stunt their ability to finance and grow Russia’s military.
We will impair their ability to compete in a high-tech, 21st century economy.
He said that the US has sanctioned Russian banks that together hold around $1 trillion in assets and cut off the country’s largest bank—Sberbank—from the US financial system. Additionally, Biden announced that Washington will be sanctioning several Russian elites who are close to Putin and their family members. “These are people who personally gain from the Kremlin’s policies and they should share in the pain,” he noted.
The US sanctions also include measures to prevent Moscow from raising money from US or European investors, restrictions on Russia’s largest state-owned enterprises. Furthermore, Biden threatened to impose even more sanctions in the coming weeks that will “degrade” Russia’s ability to continue modernising its military, space programme, and economy at large.
Moreover, Biden revealed that the US will be taking additional steps to strengthen NATO, along with alliance members. In this respect, Biden said that he had approved the Pentagon’s request to send an additional 7,000 troops to Germany, bringing the total number of US troops that have been sent to Europe in the wake of Russian aggression to 12,000. Earlier this month, the US authorised the deployment of US ground and air forces stationed in Europe to NATO’s eastern flank—Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.
The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that it was sending 7,000 service members of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team to Germany “to reassure NATO allies, deter Russian aggression and to be prepared to support a range of other requirements in the region.” It stated that “the troops will deploy to Germany initially [and] could be repositioned to other NATO countries as needed.”
.@PentagonPresSec: As @POTUS mentioned in his remarks yesterday @SecDef ordered the additional movement of U.S. forces that were currently stationed in Europe to continue our support for NATO Allies and the defense of the eastern flank. pic.twitter.com/Jm4ksPLRW5
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) February 23, 2022
However, Biden said that US troops “are not 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,” he stressed.
NATO has also condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “in the strongest possible terms.” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that NATO “will continue to do whatever is necessary to shield the Alliance from aggression.” Earlier this week Stoltenberg said that NATO has over 100 jets under high alert and thousands of troops have been placed on standby in Eastern Europe.
After almost 24 hours since Russia invaded Ukraine from land, air and sea, Russian troops have advanced from multiple fronts—Luhansk in the east, Belgorod (Russia) in the northeast, Crimea in the south, and Belarus in the north. According to reports, Russian troops have taken control of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, which lies 137 kilometres north of Kyiv, and plan on advancing towards the capital. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier today that 137 people, including civilians, have thus far been killed in Russia’s assault.