GENEVA (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that any Russian troop movement across the Ukraine border would be considered an invasion and that Moscow would “pay a heavy price” for such action.
His words were the latest attempt by the White House to clarify comments Biden made a day earlier, when he hinted that a “small incursion” by Russia into Ukrainian territory could lead to a more measured response from the United States and its allies.
Facing an avalanche of criticism from Republican lawmakers and Ukrainian officials that Biden’s comments had invited limited military action by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the US president sought to clarify his remarks at the start of a meeting at the House of Representatives. White focused on domestic politics.
“I have been crystal clear with President Putin,” Biden said. “There is no misunderstanding: Any unit that crosses the border into Ukraine is an invasion,” Biden said, adding that an invasion will receive a “tough economic response.” and coordinated.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is preparing to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Friday in a bid to de-escalate tensions that seems doomed to fail.
Biden said the United States is preparing for Russian action outside the parameters of a conventional war.
“Russia has a long history of using non-military measures to carry out aggression: paramilitary tactics, so-called gray zone attacks, and acts by Russian soldiers not wearing Russian uniforms,” he noted.
On Wednesday, Biden said he believes Moscow will proceed with the invasion and warned Putin that his country would pay a “very high price” in loss of life and possible exclusion from the international banking system if his troops enter Ukrainian territory.
But Biden also caused concern among his allies by saying that the response to a Russian invasion “depends on what you do.”
“A minor incursion is one thing and then we would have a dispute about what to do and what not to do and so on,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among those who raised concerns about Biden’s declaration of a “minor incursion.”
“We want to remind the great powers that there are no such thing as minor incursions or small nations. Just as there are no minor victims or little pain for the loss of loved ones,” he tweeted.
Before traveling to Geneva, Blinken warned in Berlin that there would be a “swift and severe” response from the United States and its allies in the event that Russia orders the advance of military forces towards Ukraine.
“If any Russian military forces cross the Ukrainian border and commit further acts of aggression against Ukraine, there will be a prompt, severe and united response from the United States and our partners and allies,” Blinken told a news conference alongside Ukraine. her German counterpart Analenna Baerbock.
Blinken subsequently accused Russia of threatening the foundation of the world order with its deployment of around 100,000 troops near Ukraine.
Russia will face a harsh and coordinated global response should it carry out an invasion, he said in a speech in Berlin, the city that symbolized the Cold War divide between East and West.
“We are dealing with difficult issues and they will not be resolved quickly,” admitted Blinken. “Certainly, I don’t assume that we will solve them tomorrow in Geneva.”
Blinken said that Russia’s actions towards Ukraine are an attempt to undermine international norms and just the latest in a series of violations by Russia of various treaties, agreements and commitments to respect the sovereignty and territory of other countries.
“Allowing Russia to violate those principles with impunity would take us back to a much more dangerous and unstable time, when this continent, and this city, was divided in two, separated by no man’s land and guarded by soldiers, with the threat of a large-scale war on everyone’s life,” Blinken told an audience at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. “It would also send the message to other places around the world that these principles are expendable.”
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Madhani reported from Washington; Jordans from Berlin. Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed to this report.
