US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he is now convinced that Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, attacking not only the east of the country in support of ethnic Russian separatists, but also the capital Kiev.
The Democrat made one more of his pronouncements on the crisis, the second this week, to say that he had spoken with European leaders and that there was unity between the members of NATO (Western military alliance) and the European Union. “The West is united,” he said.
That’s when he repeated that the Russians should choose between war and diplomacy, adding: “I am convinced that he [Putin] made the decision [de invadir]”. It was a classic Biden moment, with a certain indecision in the words, but then the president opened up the possibility of being questioned.
It was clearly asked if that was what he meant, and he confirmed it. Then, when answering a question about the nuclear capability exercises that Putin will preside over this Saturday (19), he said he didn’t believe it was more than propaganda, but at the same time he said: “It’s hard to read your mind”.
So far, Biden and other officials said they saw an imminent risk of an invasion, but always stressed that the final decision had not been made by the Russian.
The tone one notch above in a crisis that has already burst all the American’s rhetorical gauges seems like an ultimatum, but the fact is that the initiative is in Putin’s hands. If he does nothing, nothing happens. That looks like the Russian president’s calculation at the moment.
Biden said again that he believes that military action against the Ukrainians will take place “in the next week, in the next few days”, but recalled that his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has an appointment in some European country to define with the Russian chancellor. , Sergei Lavrov, on the 24th.
“If he acts sooner, he will have closed the door on diplomacy,” Biden said, somewhat obviously. “I’m not sure he’s interested in diplomacy,” she said. “He thinks he has the ability to change dynamics in Europe, which he doesn’t.”
On Friday (18), separatists from Donbass (eastern Ukraine) accused Kiev of threatening an invasion (“Something that makes no sense, since there are 150,000 Russian troops around,” Biden said) and evacuated civilians from the region.
There is a fear that a pretext for conflict is brewing there. “It’s the playbook of what’s been done before,” Biden said.
At the same time, the American again said that, if there is Russian aggression, he will not send troops to help Kiev – which has his support, financially and in the form of the delivery of some weapons. On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Munich to meet Biden’s deputy Kamala Harris.
He was heavily criticized at home for this. Biden compromised, saying it was a colleague issue.
