(Washington) A Russian attack on Ukraine remains “quite possible”, but we must “give diplomacy every chance”, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.
Posted at 4:37 p.m.
A start of withdrawal of Russian soldiers to the Ukrainian border mentioned Tuesday by Moscow “would be positive” but “we have not checked at this stage” its implementation, he added, affirming on the contrary that these troops, now estimated at “more than 150,000”, remained in “a threatening position”.
The Democratic president alternated, in a short speech, between signs of openness and messages of firmness.
“Citizens of Russia, you are not our enemies,” he said, assuring that neither the United States nor NATO posed a “threat” to that country.
“There are real ways to address our respective security concerns,” he said of Russia.
But Joe Biden also said that in the event of an invasion of Ukraine, the sanctions were “ready”, and would weigh heavily on Russian finance and businesses.
These “powerful” measures will notably put “pressure on their largest and most important financial institutions and on key industries”, added the President of the United States, also reaffirming that the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and the United States Germany would never come into action in the event of a Russian attack.
The United States is also “ready to respond” to attacks that could target them and their allies, for example in the form of cyberattacks.
He also argued that while no American soldiers would go to fight in Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO, the United States was ready to use “all its might” to defend “every inch territory” of a member state of the military alliance.
By invading Ukraine, Russia “would harm itself”, he said, assuring that Westerners were “united and determined as ever” to defend their “values” in the face of the threat posed by Moscow.