The United States warned Moscow on Tuesday of damaging sanctions, including measures personally targeting Vladimir Putin, as Russian combat troops massing around Ukraine launched new exercises.
Tension appeared to be only increasing, with the White House saying the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine “remains imminent.”
Warning that would prompt “enormous consequences” and even “change the world,” President Joe Biden said he would consider adding direct sanctions on Putin to a raft of measures being drawn up.
“Yes. I would see that,” Biden said when asked by reporters in Washington about targeting Putin, whom opponents have long accused of holding gigantic, secret wealth.
New measures would include restrictions on exports of high-tech US equipment in the artificial intelligence, quantum computing and aerospace sectors, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
“What we’re talking about are sophisticated technologies that we design and produce,” and cutting them off would hit Putin’s “strategic ambitions to industrialize his economy quite hard,” the official said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson echoed the threat, saying sanctions would be “heavier than anything we’ve ever done.”
In a bid to break the growing tension, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would talk by telephone with Putin on Friday, seeking “clarification” on Moscow’s intentions.
– New Russian Military Exercises –
A day after Washington said it was putting 8,500 US troops on alert for possible deployment to bolster NATO forces in Europe, the Russian military announced it was conducting new drills involving 6,000 troops near Ukraine and within the Crimea region.
The drills included firing exercises with fighter jets, bombers, anti-aircraft systems and ships from the Black Sea and Caspian fleets, the defence ministry said.
According to Western officials, the Kremlin has already deployed more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, with reinforcements arriving from all over Russia.
“We continue to watch the accumulation of significant combat power,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
Canada announced it was following Britain and the United States in pulling families of its diplomats out of Ukraine.
The United States and its EU allies accuse Russia of seeking to upend European stability by threatening invasion of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic striving to join NATO and other Western institutions.
Moscow denies plans to invade the country, where in addition to seizing Crimea it backs separatist forces in the east.
Russia instead blames the West for the tension and has put forward a list of demands, including a guarantee that Ukraine never joins NATO and that NATO forces already in the former Soviet bloc pull back.
– Weapons arrive –
Ukraine’s military is heavily outgunned by Russia and Biden repeated that he has “no intention of putting American forces or NATO forces in Ukraine.”
However, the United States has stepped up deliveries of weapons. A shipment arrived on Saturday and another batch was due Tuesday.
At a ceremony for the latest shipment arriving in Kyiv, US charge d’affaires Kristina Kvien said “our preference is diplomacy.”
But in case of attack by Russia, “the Kremlin will face fierce resistance, the losses to Russia will be heavy.”
“If President Putin decides to make this reckless choice, we will provide additional defensive material to the Ukrainians above and beyond what we’ve already sent,” she said.
AFP