Ukraine bristles at Joe Biden’s remarks on Russian invasion: ‘There are no minor incursions’
- Western allies scramble to present a show of unity after the US president suggested they were split over how to react to aggression by Moscow
- Any movement by Russian units across the Ukraine border would be considered an invasion, Biden clarifies
“We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a tweet posted on Thursday morning.
“Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones. I say this as the president of a great power.”
Zelensky’s comment was a remarkable retort from a close US ally that has received millions of dollars in military aid.
The White House has since scrambled to clarify the president’s remarks.
“It depends on what (Russia) does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about we have to do and not do,” Biden said in his remarks. The president also predicted that Russia would invade Ukraine, even as he warned of “severe economic consequences” if that happens.
Biden rowed back on his comments the next day, saying that “I have been absolutely clear with President Putin, he has no misunderstanding. If any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border that is an invasion”.
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“The Ukrainian foreign minister said this morning he’s confident of our support and resolve, and he has a right to be,” the president added.
Biden’s Wednesday remarks sent his administration and allies quickly into damage control mode, with a stress on unity.
“No matter which path Russia chooses, it will find the United States, Germany, and our allies, united,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at a press conference with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during a visit to Berlin to meet ministers from Britain, France and Germany.
“We urgently demand that Russia takes steps towards de-escalation. Any further aggressive behaviour or aggression would result in serious consequences,” Baerbock told the news conference.
02:22
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Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Biden’s “minor incursion” comment was not a green light to a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “Be in no doubt that if Russia were to make any kind of incursion into Ukraine, or on any scale, whatever, I think that that would be a disaster, not just for Ukraine, but for Russia.”
Moscow, for its part, said US threats of sanctions were not calming the situation.
With Western countries having long emphasised their united position in public, some officials privately expressed frustration at Biden’s remarks on Wednesday, although they described them as a gaffe, unlikely to alter Moscow’s calculations.
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“It was not helpful, in fact it was a gift to Putin, but we should not read too much into it. Biden has not given Moscow the green light for an attack on Ukraine. It was a slip of his tongue, and the official Western position will prevail,” said one Western security source.
Moscow presented the West with a list of security demands at talks last week that produced no breakthrough.
Western countries have imposed repeated rounds of economic sanctions since Russian troops seized and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.
But such moves have had scant impact on Russian policy, with Moscow, Europe’s main energy supplier, calculating that the West would stop short of steps serious enough to interfere with gas exports.
US and European officials say there are still strong financial measures that have not been tried. Germany has signalled that it could halt Nord Stream 2, a new gas pipeline from Russia that skirts Ukraine, if Moscow invades.
But Germany could find itself in a no-win situation if Russia invades Ukraine, pitting Berlin’s main gas supplier against its most important security allies.
Meanwhile, Turkish diplomatic sources said on Thursday that both Russia and Ukraine are open to the idea of Turkey playing a role to ease tensions between the two countries, as proposed by Ankara in November.
Tribune News Service and Reuters
