Thursday, 15 May 2025
America Age
  • Trending
  • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Real Estate
    • Money
    • Crypto & NFTs
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Fashion / Beauty
    • Art & Books
    • Culture
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
Font ResizerAa
America AgeAmerica Age
Search
  • Trending
  • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Real Estate
    • Money
    • Crypto & NFTs
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Fashion / Beauty
    • Art & Books
    • Culture
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
© 2024 America Age. All Rights Reserved.
America Age > Blog > World > Biden warns Putin of ‘severe costs’ of Ukraine invasion
World

Biden warns Putin of ‘severe costs’ of Ukraine invasion

Enspirers | Editorial Board
Share
Biden warns Putin of ‘severe costs’ of Ukraine invasion
SHARE
Associated Press

JIM HEINTZ and AAMER MADHANI

February 12, 2022, 11:31 AM

MOSCOW (AP) — In a phone call with President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, President Joe Biden made clear that if Russia invades Ukraine, the U.S. and its allies would respond “decisively and impose swift and severe costs,” the White House said.

According to a readout of the hourlong call, Biden told Putin that an invasion would “produce widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing.” The U.S. remains committed to diplomacy, but was “equally prepared for other scenarios,” according to the White House.

The two presidents spoke the day after Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, warned that U.S. intelligence shows that a Russian invasion could begin within days and before the Winter Olympics in Beijing end Feb. 20.

The Biden administration has been warning for weeks that Russia could invade Ukraine soon, but U.S. officials had previously said the Kremlin would likely wait until after the Games ended so as not to antagonize China.

Sullivan told reporters on Friday that U.S. intelligence gleaned show that Russia could take military action the during the Olympics.

Russia has more than 100,000 Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s borders but denies that it intends to launch an offensive against Ukraine.

With the risk of war looming larger, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden held a high-stakes telephone call Saturday as a tense world watched and worried that an invasion of Ukraine could begin within days.

Before talking to Biden, Putin had a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with him in Moscow earlier in the week to try to resolve the biggest security crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War. A Kremlin summary of the call suggested that little progress was made toward cooling down the tensions.

The closely watched call between Biden and Putin began shortly after 11 a.m. and lasted just over an hour, according to the White House. Biden conducted the call from Camp David. There were no immediate details about the discussion.

In a sign that American officials were getting ready for a worst-case scenario, the United States announced plans to evacuate its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, and Britain joined other European nations in urging its citizens to leave Ukraine.

Russia has massed well over 100,000 troops near the Ukraine border and has sent troops to exercises in neighboring Belarus, but denies that it intends to launch an offensive against Ukraine.

The timing of any possible Russian military action remained a key question.

The U.S. picked up intelligence that Russia is looking at Wednesday as a target date, according to a U.S. official familiar with the findings. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and did so only on condition of anonymity, would not say how definitive the intelligence was. The White House publicly underscored that the U.S. does not know with certainty whether Putin is committed to invasion.

However, U.S. officials said anew that Russia’s buildup of firepower near Ukraine has reached the point where it could invade on short notice.

A Kremlin statement about the Putin-Macron call referred to “provocative speculations about an allegedly planned Russian ‘invasion’ of Ukraine.” Russia has consistently denied that it plans military action against its neighbor.

Putin also complained in the call that the United States and NATO have not responded satisfactorily to Russian demands that Ukraine be prohibited from joining the military alliance and that NATO pull back forces from Eastern Europe.

Biden has said the U.S. military will not enter a war in Ukraine, but he has promised severe economic sanctions against Moscow, in concert with international allies.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he told his Russian counterpart Saturday that “further Russian aggression would be met with a resolute, massive and united trans-Atlantic response.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tried to project calm as he observed military exercises Saturday near Crimea, the peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

“We are not afraid, we’re without panic, all is under control,” he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, also held telephone discussions on Saturday.

U.K. troops that have been training the Ukrainian army also planned to leave the country. Germany, the Netherlands and Italy called on their citizens to leave as soon as possible.

A State Department travel advisory on Saturday said most American staff at the Kyiv embassy have been ordered to leave and other U.S. citizens should depart the country as well.

Further U.S.-Russia tensions arose on Saturday when the Defense Ministry summoned the U.S. embassy’s military attache after it said the navy detected an American submarine in Russian waters near the Kuril Islands in the Pacific. The submarine declined orders to leave, but departed after the navy used unspecified “appropriate means,” the ministry said.

Adding to the sense of crisis, the Pentagon ordered an additional 3,000 U.S. troops to Poland to reassure allies.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Americans in Ukraine should not expect the U.S. military to rescue them in the event that air and rail transportation is severed after a Russian invasion.

Several NATO allies, including Britain, Canada, Norway and Denmark, also asked their citizens to leave Ukraine, as did non-NATO ally New Zealand.

Sullivan said Russian military action could start with missile and air attacks, followed by a ground offensive.

“Russia has all the forces it needs to conduct a major military action,” Sullivan said, adding that “Russia could choose, in very short order, to commence a major military action against Ukraine.” He said the scale of such an invasion could range from a limited incursion to a strike on Kyiv, the capital.

Russia scoffed at the U.S. talk of urgency.

“The hysteria of the White House is more indicative than ever,” said Maria Zakharova, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. “The Anglo-Saxons need a war. At any cost. Provocations, misinformation and threats are a favorite method of solving their own problems.”

Zakharova said her country had “optimized” staffing at its own embassy in Kyiv in response to concerns about possible military actions from the Ukrainian side.

In addition to the more than 100,000 ground troops that U.S. officials say Russia has assembled along Ukraine’s eastern and southern borders, the Russians have deployed missile, air, naval and special operations forces, as well as supplies to sustain a war. This week, Russia moved six amphibious assault ships into the Black Sea, augmenting its capability to land marines on the coast.

Sullivan’s stark warning accelerated the projected time frame for a potential invasion, which many analysts had believed was unlikely until after the Winter Olympics in China end on Feb. 20. Sullivan said the combination of a further Russian troop buildup on Ukraine’s borders and unspecified intelligence indicators have prompted the administration to warn that war could begin any time.

“We can’t pinpoint the day at this point, and we can’t pinpoint the hour, but that is a very, very distinct possibility,” Sullivan said.

Biden has bolstered the U.S. military presence in Europe as reassurance to allies on NATO’s eastern flank. The 3,000 additional soldiers ordered to Poland come on top of 1,700 who are on their way there. The U.S. Army also is shifting 1,000 soldiers from Germany to Romania, which like Poland shares a border with Ukraine.

Russia is demanding that the West keep former Soviet countries out of NATO. It also wants NATO to refrain from deploying weapons near its border and to roll back alliance forces from Eastern Europe — demands flatly rejected by the West.

Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly leader was driven from office by a popular uprising. Moscow responded by annexing the Crimean Peninsula and then backing a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has killed over 14,000 people.

A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped halt large-scale battles, but regular skirmishes have continued, and efforts to reach a political settlement have stalled.

___

Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Mark Lewis in Stavanger, Norway, also contributed to this report.

Share This Article
Twitter Email Copy Link Print
Previous Article Sharing boarding school abuse made Paris Hilton grow ‘closer’ to mom Kathy Sharing boarding school abuse made Paris Hilton grow ‘closer’ to mom Kathy
Next Article Hilaria Baldwin Shows Off Chic New Hairstyle: ‘I Like the Short Hair’ Hilaria Baldwin Shows Off Chic New Hairstyle: ‘I Like the Short Hair’

Your Trusted Source for Accurate and Timely Updates!

Our commitment to accuracy, impartiality, and delivering breaking news as it happens has earned us the trust of a vast audience. Stay ahead with real-time updates on the latest events, trends.
FacebookLike
TwitterFollow
InstagramFollow
LinkedInFollow
MediumFollow
QuoraFollow
- Advertisement -
Ad image

Popular Posts

Pandemic Fears Give Way to a Rush for Bomb Shelters

BAGNOLO SAN VITO, Italy — Across a footbridge from a busy shopping outlet surrounded by…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

Sweden ends neutrality, joins Finland in seeking NATO berth

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden's prime minister announced Monday that Sweden will join Finland in seeking…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

Zillow: No-commingling rule ought to be repealed — not CCP

Whether or not it’s refining your online business mannequin, mastering new applied sciences, or discovering…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

Sudan orders use of military to stop Darfur tribal fighting

CAIRO (AP) — A top Sudanese general ordered Friday the use of military force to…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

You Might Also Like

Zelenskyy sends crew for peace talks however says Russia ‘not serious enough’
World

Zelenskyy sends crew for peace talks however says Russia ‘not serious enough’

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
Ben & Jerry’s co-founder arrested for protesting Gaza blockade at US Senate listening to
World

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder arrested for protesting Gaza blockade at US Senate listening to

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
Center East disaster reside: Trump says US ought to flip Gaza into ‘freedom zone’ as greater than 50 killed in Israeli strikes
World

Center East disaster reside: Trump says US ought to flip Gaza into ‘freedom zone’ as greater than 50 killed in Israeli strikes

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
Little one safety employee reveals what Erin Patterson instructed her in wake of deadly mushroom lunch
World

Little one safety employee reveals what Erin Patterson instructed her in wake of deadly mushroom lunch

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
America Age
Facebook Twitter Youtube

About US


America Age: Your instant connection to breaking stories and live updates. Stay informed with our real-time coverage across politics, tech, entertainment, and more. Your reliable source for 24/7 news.

Company
  • About Us
  • Newsroom Policies & Standards
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Careers
  • Media & Community Relations
  • WP Creative Group
  • Accessibility Statement
Contact Us
  • Contact Us
  • Contact Customer Care
  • Advertise
  • Licensing & Syndication
  • Request a Correction
  • Contact the Newsroom
  • Send a News Tip
  • Report a Vulnerability
Terms of Use
  • Digital Products Terms of Sale
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Settings
  • Submissions & Discussion Policy
  • RSS Terms of Service
  • Ad Choices
© 2024 America Age. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?