U.S. President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that Russia would face significant economic and military countermeasures should Mr. Putin order a wider invasion of Ukraine.
In a two-hour video summit prompted by Russia’s continuing military buildup around Ukraine’s borders, Mr. Biden told Mr. Putin that the U.S. was prepared to dramatically escalate economic sanctions against Moscow in the event of a new Russian incursion.
Russia denies planning to invade Ukraine, where it already seized swaths of territory in 2014. However, Biden made clear that economic pain, perhaps including “risk” to Russia’s new Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline supplying Europe, would follow if it does.
According to U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden also warned the Russian leader that the U.S. would send more weapons to Ukraine to help the country defend itself in the event of an attack, while the NATO military alliance could respond by moving additional troops into front-line states such as Poland, Romania and the Baltic countries.
No new agreements were announced following the video call. Some 100,000 Russian troops remain within a short drive of Ukraine’s borders, backed by hundreds of tanks and warplanes, and new units continue to arrive. There was no sign that Mr. Biden had met any of Mr. Putin’s demands regarding the political future of Ukraine.
The meeting was one of the biggest foreign policy test of Biden’s presidency to date, with consequences for the stability of Europe, the credibility of American threats and the future of a country the United States has spent years trying to defend from Mr. Putin’s aggression. Here are five takeaways from the day.
