‘Freedom Will Prevail’: Biden Addresses Nation, Refuses To Sanction Putin Or Comment On China

More than fifteen hours after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden held a press conference in the White House to discuss his administration’s response to Putin’s military attack.

Biden said that Putin acted “without justification,” and that the attack was a “premeditated” one that had been planned for months. Russia had rejected “every good faith effort” made by the U.S. and allies to address “mutual security concerns” through “dialogue,” which would have avoided “needless conflict” and “human suffering.”

Biden gave a brief overview of the assault, including the shelling of Ukraine’s “historic cities,” cyber attacks, and “staged political theater” in Moscow made up of “outlandish and baseless claims” that Ukraine was the aggressor in pursuit of genocide.

The president argued that his administration had shared intel with allies so that there was no “confusion” regarding accountability, before confirming that Putin is the aggressor, and that Putin “chose this war.” Now he and his country will bear the consequences, Biden claimed.

“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden says, adding that Russia’s largest bank has been cut off from the US financial system pic.twitter.com/cdgDvbaxRV

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 24, 2022

Biden then announced additional sanctions, as well as limitations on what can be exported to Russia, which were “purposefully designed” to “maximize impact” on Russia while minimizing impact on Western allies. These included limiting the ability of Russian groups and companies to do business in “dollars, pounds, euros and yen,” impairing Russia’s ability to compete in the “21st century economy.” Biden noted that the ruble hit its weakest level ever, and that the Russian stock market has plunged, before mentioning several large Russian banks targeted by sanctions, cutting off trillions of dollars worth of assets from the financial system.- READ MORE