Russia: US rallies allies as Putin attacks Ukraine under nuclear umbrella
WASHINGTON: The United States and its Western allies on Thursday slammed Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, intensifying sanctions and slashing NATO border defenses in the worst crisis to engulf Europe since World War II. shored up.
Facing an invasion under a nuclear cover, US President Joe Bided mobilized NATO allies, G7 partners, and domestic opinion to crack down on Russian President Vladimir Putin, when Moscow decided to proceed with the long-predicted invasion. closed the first round of sanctions for – what Russia called “special military action” – of Ukraine.
In pre-invasion remarks, Putin explicitly called for a nuclear response if the US and its allies intervened.
“Whoever tries to disrupt us, creating danger to our country and its people, should know that the Russian response will be immediate and will lead to consequences that you have never seen in history.” “All relevant decisions have been taken. I hope you will hear me,” Putin said in a televised address.
In New York, the United Nations also came down on Russia, with its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling the invasion “the saddest moment of my tenure” while appealing to Putin, “In the name of humanity, please bring your forces back to Russia.” Putin’s announcement of “special military action” in Ukraine came as the United Nations was discussing earlier steps in Moscow’s Donbass region.
In one of the most vivid moments in geopolitical television history, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sergei Kislitsia, addressed directly to his Russian counterpart Vasily Nebenzya, who was presiding over the session, calling on him to step down from his chair, and Called Putin and Lavrov. Foreign Minister of Russia) “Tell them to stop the aggression on my people.”
“There is no purification for war criminals, ambassadors … they go straight to hell,” he said to the Russian chair. Envoys from the US and UK were later seen comforting an emotional envoy from Ukraine.
Earlier, President Biden accused Putin of choosing a “pre-planned war” that he predicted would bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering.
“Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction caused by this attack, and the United States and its allies and allies will respond in a united and decisive manner. The world will hold Russia accountable,” Biden said in his late night address.
In the morning, Biden convened an in-person meeting of his National Security Council in the White House status room, followed by a virtual meeting of G7 leaders to consider the Western response to Putin’s move, which surprisingly included right-wingers in the Trump camp. There is some support between Those who argue that the US has no stake in a primarily European fight, and that Washington should focus on its southern borders and its internal problems.
Trump actually called Putin “smart” “sensible” and a “genius” for his move to Ukraine, while claiming with typical bombshell that it would never have happened on his watch.
Trump’s critics believe that will not happen, simply because he would have gifted Ukraine and handed it to Putin. Others even went to Barack Obama to explain Washington’s timid response, which some attributed to Washington’s damage in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The alternative narrative is that successive US presidents allowed Atlantic militarists in the US establishment to push NATO to Russia’s doorstep, which Putin felt. Trump’s British surrogate Nigel Farage actually tweeted that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was “the result of the expansion of the EU and NATO, which came to a head in 2014. There was no point in hitting a Russian bear with a stick.”
Before increasing sanctions, the US and its allies were expected to deter a full-scale invasion, opting for incremental measures following the initial Russian incursion into Ukraine.
Some experts said it was tantamount to “bringing a pea-shooter into a gunfight” and argued that it encouraged Putin to go all in.
US officials defended the approach. “We are not cowboys who are imposing arbitrary and mind-boggling restrictions on the rest of the world.” President Biden’s point on the sanctions was Dalip Singh, explaining that the US was following a set of guiding principles regarding the sanctions, which he promised would ultimately harm Moscow.
