US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said the “world will hold Russia accountable” over a military onslaught against Ukraine that he warned will cause “catastrophic loss of life. In a statement issued shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of military operations in Ukraine, Biden said he would address the US public on Thursday to outline the “consequences” for Russia, calling the attack “unprovoked and unjustified.
Biden also held a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky soon after explosions were heard in multiple parts of the country, which is sandwiched between Russia and NATO member Poland.
“We will continue to provide support and assistance to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” Biden said in a statement after the call, adding that Zelensky had requested him to “call on the leaders of the world to speak out clearly” against Putin’s “flagrant aggression.”
The US Secretaries of State and Defense also spoke with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg to condemn the “unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine,” the State Department said.
President Biden was due to join a virtual, closed-door meeting of G7 leaders — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — at 9:00 am (1400 GMT) Thursday. The White House said his remarks to the nation would come in the early afternoon in Washington.
The G7 meeting is likely to result in more sanctions against Russia, which has long claimed it would not invade Ukraine, despite putting a huge force of tens of thousands of soldiers and heavy weaponry on the country’s borders, while insisting that the Ukrainian government abandon its pro-Western ambitions.
Putin’s speech delivered in the early hours of Thursday announced a “special military operation.” Shortly after, explosions were reported across Ukraine, including in the capital Kyiv.
On Tuesday, the US government joined European allies in imposing sanctions on two Russian banks, Moscow’s sovereign debt, several oligarchs and other measures. Another Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, said “President Biden has already imposed an initial tranche of sanctions, and it is now time for us to up the pain level for the Russian government. Russians “will pay a steep cost for Putin’s reckless ambition, in blood and in economic harm,” he said.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney warned against “the peril of again looking away from Putin’s tyranny” and urging “the harshest economic penalties” and “expelling them from global institutions.”
In his statement, Biden said “the prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering.
Source: eNCA
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