US President Joe Biden met with G7 allies on Thursday to hammer out a slew of fresh sanctions against Russia in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine, and would later address the American people on a crisis that he predicts will result in “catastrophic loss of life.”
The G7 leaders’ virtual closed-door conference, which includes the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the US, was planned to begin at 9:00 a.m. (1400 GMT), with Biden’s White House speech scheduled for early afternoon.
As Russia massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy weapons on Ukraine’s border in recent weeks, Biden has led NATO and other European partners in attempting to put together a package of “unprecedented” penalties as a deterrence.
Now that the deterrent has failed, the effort is likely to see rapid escalation to inflict real pain on Russia’s already shaky economy.
“The United States and its allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable,” Biden said in his first comments late Wednesday in Washington, after Russian missiles began to rain down on Ukraine.
Biden also spoke on the phone with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, promising to “offer support and help to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”
Zelensky had asked him to “urge on the leaders of the world to speak out openly” against Putin’s “flagrant aggression,” according to Trump.
Western countries sprang into action on Tuesday when Putin stated he would send soldiers as “peacekeepers” to two small areas already controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.
Sanctions were imposed on two Russian banks, Moscow’s sovereign debt, many billionaires, and other targets by the US and its European allies.
On Wednesday, as the Russian invasion force appeared to be preparing to attack, Biden imposed penalties against the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany, one of Moscow’s most high-profile geopolitical projects.
Germany had previously stated that it would prevent the pipeline from being used for supplies.
New penalties, according to US sources, will target other, larger institutions, additional oligarchs close to Putin, and, most importantly, a ban on high-tech equipment and component shipments to Russia. On Thursday, it was unclear how many of these measures would be announced.
Some of the measures could have major economic consequences for Western countries, jeopardizing the world economy’s recovery from the Covid epidemic. Stock markets are already in free fall, and oil prices have soared beyond $100 per barrel.
