Amid the brewing tensions over Russia’s military buildup near the Ukrainian border, white house press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday, “President Biden has been clear with the Russian President: if any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that’s a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our Allies.”
Russia has put more than 100,000 troops and war-making machinery on Ukraine’s borders. Which has sent alarms through the west – and apprehensions that Moscow is ready to invade Ukraine. But Russian commanders have said, they have no plans to invade.
The EU had earlier warned the Kremlin of “extreme consequences” if it takes any military action in neighboring Ukraine.
In the fray, Sweden has found itself threatened and has moved hundreds of its troops over the weekend to reinforce its borders and deny any fallout from the strategically important Gotland island – which lies in the Baltic Sea. Denmark has also strengthened its presence in the region a week back.
The rising tensions in the region have again re-ignited the debate in both Sweden and Finland as to whether they should now join Nato.
“If they actually do what they’re capable of doing with the force they’ve massed on the border, it is going to be a disaster for Russia,” Biden told reporters.
“The cost of going into Ukraine in terms of physical loss of life, for the Russians… it’s going to be heavy,” he told reporters.
Despite the massive build-up of troops on the borders, Moscow has denied that it’s planning a military invasion. But it has issued Nato with a list of security demands blaming the alliance for “undermining regional security”, as NATO has regularly tried to make the former soviet members a part of the alliance which continues to infuriate Russia.
According to the reports, The Biden administration is weighing new options, to make the Putin administration rethink its invasion. The US wants to provide more arms to Ukraine that will help it resist Russian occupation, and also raise the costs for Russian President Vladimir Putin in case he decides to invade the country.