Faced with the threat of an escalation in the war in Ukraine, US President Joe Biden set the record straight on Thursday by saying that the United States was not at war with Russia, but rather sought to support Ukraine against the aggression of which it has been the victim for more than two months.
“We are not attacking Russia”, launched the democrat the day after the threats made by Vladimir Putin of a possible recourse to nuclear weapons, and this, after having accused Washington and the West in the last days of carrying out a “proxy war” against Russia in Ukraine, by arming the former Soviet republic. “We are helping Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression,” he added during a press conference held at the White House.
On Thursday, the Kremlin once again accused Western countries of encouraging Ukraine to carry out attacks on Russian territory through their arms deliveries to kyiv. Since the beginning of the week, several infrastructures, including fuel and ammunition reserves, have been destroyed on the Russian side, a few kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
However, if these strikes were to continue, they “would certainly lead to a harsh response from Russia”, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned Thursday, inviting Ukraine and its allies to take Russian threats. seriously.
Threats which illustrate much more the “feeling of despair” of Russia in the face of “the lamentable failure” of its offensive in Ukraine, estimated however Joe Biden, who sharply denounced the insinuations of the Kremlin.
“Nobody should make empty comments about the use of nuclear weapons or the possibility of using them, it’s irresponsible,” said the American president.
“History has taught us that when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they breed more chaos and more aggression,” he said. As he chose to embark on this brutal aggression, he may as well choose to end it”.
A call to Congress
Ignoring Russian threats and once again banking on a war of attrition that could last several more months, the White House has also asked Congress to approve more than 33 billion dollars in security, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine in order to help the former Soviet republic repel the Russian aggressor, confirmed the president at a press briefing.
The proposal more than doubles the initial $13.6 billion defense and economic aid package for Ukraine and Western allies that Congress passed last month. It includes, among other things, $20 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, including $5 billion for arms and other military aid, $6 billion for security assistance to Ukraine and $4 billion for the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing Program.
The United States has already supplied more than $3 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
“The cost of this fight is not cheap, admitted Joe Biden, but giving in to aggression will cost more, if we remain idly by”.
The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, also reiterated on Thursday his support for Ukraine against a Russian invasion which now risks “to drag on and last for months and years. “, according to him.
To see: Where are we after two months of conflict?
“We will continue to exert maximum pressure on the president [russe] [Vladimir] Putin to end the war, by imposing sanctions, providing economic support, but also military support to Ukraine, he said at a youth summit in NATO which was held in Brussels. And we have to prepare for the long term.”
In a statement, the White House also highlighted its plan to increase this pressure on the Russian oligarchs and elite by liquidating the “kleptocratic” assets seized since the outbreak of the conflict and transferring the are thus acquired in kyiv “to compensate for the damage caused by Russian aggression”, specified the American executive.
These assets seized amount to date, for the countries of the European Union alone, to more than 30 billion dollars, including nearly 7 billion in luxury goods belonging to the oligarchs (yachts, works of art, real estate and helicopters). , says the White House.
The United States has “sanctioned and blocked ships and planes worth more than a billion, as well as frozen hundreds of millions of dollars of assets of Russian elites in American accounts”, perhaps we read.
Ukraine’s economy, torn apart by the Russian invasion, the blockade of Black Sea ports in the south and the “deep humanitarian crisis” induced by this attack, is expected to be cut in half by 2022, according to the World Bank. , with gross domestic product threatened to shrink by 45% this year, according to the organization. By comparison, Russian GDP, which has been under massive sanctions since its invasion of Ukraine, is expected to contract by 8.5%, according to IMF forecasts released last week.
With Agence France-Presse