There are consequences.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned of “hard and bitter days ahead” as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears the one-year mark, but vowed that no matter what, the United States and allies “will not waver” in supporting the Ukrainians. With Russia and Ukraine each preparing spring offensives, Biden insisted there will be no backing down from what he’s portrayed as a global struggle between democracy and autocracy — though polling suggests American support for ongoing military assistance appears to be softening (Associated Press).
The latest military aid package, the 32nd such installment, brings U.S. military aid commitment to nearly $30 billion since Moscow invaded Ukraine last February. To date, the U.S. has contributed the lion’s share of Western weapons to Ukraine and deployed hundreds of thousands of American service members to NATO-member countries to bolster defenses (CNBC).
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would step back from the last remaining major nuclear-arms-control treaty between the U.S. and Russia, and vowed to continue the military campaign in Ukraine as the diplomatic gulf widened between Moscow and the West. Besides pausing its involvement in the New START treaty, Mr. Putin said Russia would also stand ready to test new nuclear weapons if the U.S. moved to do so first, bringing into question the survival of a long-running global ban on nuclear weapons tests (Wall Street Journal).
In a more-than-hour-long speech, Putin tried to justify Russia’s invasion by claiming it had been attempting to allow citizens in the contested Donbas region to speak their “own language” and had been seeking a peaceful solution. He cited the expansion of NATO and new European anti-rocket defense systems as provoking Russia, and said the objective of the West was “infinite power” (CNBC).
Biden's getting cozy with Ukraine is isolating Russia from the US and the rest of Europe. So Putin turned to other nation-states. Long term consequences of isolating Russia were predicted years ago during the Trump administration.
"China has decided to support Russia militarily. The 'grown ups' have brought us to the brink of WWIII. My 2016 interview in Russia’s largest newspaper [Interfax] predicted all of this." George Papadopoulos, one of Trump's foreign policy advisors, tweeted (Twitter).
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