VP Harris: If Russia Further Invades Ukraine, We’ll Impose ‘Significant and Unprecedented Economic Cost’
Biden administration continues efforts to deter Russian aggression
Vice President Kamala Harris has joined the chorus of top US officials seeking to deter Russian leader Vladimir Putin from any further aggression in neighboring Ukraine.
US policymakers, from President Biden on down, have become increasingly convinced that Putin intends to use the as many as 150,000 Russian troops massed along the border with Ukraine to launch a wider invasion of Ukraine probably at any time now.
Putin has been using a series of false pretexts to loosely justify action against its fellow former Soviet republic.
The United States and Russia are signatories to an international agreement which guarantees Ukraine's security and sovereignty.
Russian forces have been fighting in far eastern Ukraine for nearly eight years. What the Russian leader now plans appears to be a wider invasion aimed at preventing Ukraine from eventually joining the Western-oriented NATO military alliance.
“As president Joe Biden has made clear the United States our NATO allies and our partners have been and remain open to serious diplomacy we have put concrete proposals on the table we have encouraged and engaged Russia through NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe the United Nations and bilateral dialogues we have engaged in good faith Russia continues to claim it is ready for talks while at the same time it narrows the avenues for diplomacy their actions simply do not match their words and let me be clear I can say with absolute certainty if Russia further invades Ukraine the United States together with our allies and partners will impose significant and unprecedented economic cost,” Harris said, to applause at an international conference in Munich, Germany. “We have worked intensively with many of you in this room to ensure we are prepared to move forward with consequences we have prepared together economic measures that will be swift, severe and united.”
As Biden and others have done, Harris promised a panoply of repercussions Russia — and Putin, personally — would find increasingly painful.
“We will impose far-reaching financial sanctions and export controls we will target Russia’s financial institutions and key industries and we will target those who are complicit and those who aid and abet this unprovoked invasion,” she added. “Make no mistake the imposition of these sweeping and coordinated measures will inflict great damage on those who must be held accountable and we will not stop with economic measures we will further reinforce our NATO allies on the eastern flank.”
Harris specified the military moves the United States has taken this far.
“In fact together we have already taken steps to strengthen our deterrence and collective defense we have deployed an additional 6,000 American service members to Romania, Poland and Germany,” the vice president said. “We have put another 8,500 service members in the United States on a heightened sense of readiness. As President Biden has said our forces will not be deployed to fight inside Ukraine but they will defend every inch of NATO territory.”
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