Biden previously said the US and its allies would announce ‘severe sanctions’ on Russia after a G7 meeting on Thursday.
United States President Joe Biden has vowed “support and assistance” for Ukraine in a call with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shortly after Russia launched an overnight invasionThe country.
In the call early on Thursday, Biden said Washington will “continue to provide support and assistance to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people”.
He condemned the “unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces”.
In a statement, the US president said Zelenskyy asked Washington to “call on the leaders of the world to speak out clearly” against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “flagrant aggression”.
Tomorrow I am meeting the leaders of the G7. The United States, our Allies, and Partners will impose severe sanctions against Russia.
We will keep providing support and assistance for Ukraine and its people.
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 24, 2022
In a previous statement released early on Wednesday, Biden said he would meet his G7 counterparts on Thursday to map out more severe measures against Russia, saying the US and its allies would act in “a united and decisive way” and “will be imposing severe sanctions on Russia”.
“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Biden said in the initial statement.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro said the US leader is expected to announce a “full raft of sanctions”, adding the White House had said earlier on Wednesday “there would be no financial institution in Russia that is safe from these potential sanctions”.
The White House did not provide any further information about the plans.
Biden is under constant pressure from Congress to increase sanctions against Moscow. Congressman Joe Biden expressed uncommon bipartisan support after the Russian attack.
“Congress is actually giving bipartisan support to the president. It is a rare thing these days that we’re hearing statements from senators of both parties saying that the US and its allies must respond to Russia’s aggression in a way that’s decisive and devastating,” Zhou-Castro added.
Washington was visited earlier this week. announcedAn initial set of Western sanctions on Russian financial institutions, oligarchs and exports.
It will be further developed on Wednesday stepped upPutin under severe pressure after sanctions were imposed on the Nord Stream 2 company and its corporate officers. Biden previously renounced the move for months.
Germany stopped approvals of the proposed pipeline on Tuesday amid fears that it might allow Moscow to control energy supply to Europe.
Biden also said that Washington would coordinate with NATO allies “to ensure a strong, united response that deters any aggression against the alliance”.
The State Department said early on Thursday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg and discussed the alliance’s coordinated response to Russia’s attack.
