President Joe Biden said there would be enormous impacts in Europe should Russia invade Ukraine – and said such a move would bring 'severe consequences' for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Biden made the sweeping statements at a Capitol Hill gift shop, as he began to make good on a pledge to get out into the country more, although in this case just minutes from the White House.
He issued stark pronouncements bout the global stakes after examining gifts for family, speaking to the national media in front of a tote bag featuring a blue whale.
It would be 'the largest invasion since World War II. It would change the world' if Putin moved in, Biden said.
'It would be severe consequences including significant economic consequences,' Biden warned.
Whale of problem: It would be 'the largest invasion since World War II. It would change the world' if Putin moved in, President Biden said of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. He spoke at a D.C. gift store
He also provided his most detailed explanation to make preparations for sending U.S. troops to bolster NATO forces if needed, with 8,500 troops already ordered on 'heightened alert.'
'I’d feel obliged to beef up our presence, NATO's presence, on the eastern front,' Biden said, with Russia having amassed more than 100,000 of its own troops on its western border and in Belarus.
'I may be moving some of those troops in the near term just because it takes time,' Biden said.
'I’ve spoken with every one of our NATO allies. We’re all on the same page,' Biden said.
He said the potential reinforcements were 'not provocative.'
President Biden picked out a necklace and a sweatshirt, then spoke of developments in Europe
'I don’t think even his people know for certain what he is going to do,' Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin
He said there was not a lot of concern for the security of allies in western Europe. 'But in Eastern Europe there’s reason for concern. They’re along the Russian border, the Belarus border,' he said.
He also warned of the potential for 'spillover effects.'
As he has in the past, Biden says he does not know Putin's intensions. 'I don’t think even his people know for certain what he is going to do,' the president said.
Biden's comments came a day after the breezed through a question on his teleconference with European leaders, shortly before calling Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a 'stupid son of a b**ch.'
He made his remarks at HoneyMade, a gift store in Washington, D.C. He picked out a sweatshirt and mentioned a grandson in California, a possible reference to Beau Biden, Jr., Hunter's son.
He also told reporters he picked out a necklace for first lady Jill Biden.
The store is located in Southeast Washington, DC, near a Marine barracks.
The store website says it 'began as a local maker and designer of fashion and accessories for women, babies, and children before finally taking the plunge and opening HoneyMade.' It features a 'rotating cast of items by our favorite artisans, artists, and designers, including the fun and fashionable gifts that we make ourselves in our studio behind the store.'
His decision to get out of the White House came during a day of tension in Washington. His aides are briefing to staff in the Capitol in Ukraine.
And Biden's comments came after Ukraine's Foreign Minister on Tuesday warned great powers not to make any back door deals with Vladimir Putin as Russia inches closer to invading Ukraine and the U.S. weighs troop deployment.
'If anyone makes a concession on Ukraine behind Ukraine's back, first, we will not accept that,' Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN. 'We will not be in a position of a country that speaks on the phone, hears the instruction of the big power and follows it. No.'
'We paid a lot, including 15,000 lives of our citizens, to secure the right to decide our own future, our own destiny, and we will not allow anyone to impose any concessions on us,' he added.
Kuleba added that if anyone comes to Kyiv demanding further concessions he will kick them out of the country and 'personally arrange' for an escort to the airport.
Leaders in Ukraine have 'turned the page' on Biden's comment from his press briefing last week suggesting the U.S. would not act if Russia just commits a 'minor incursion' against Ukraine, Kuleba insisted.
The faux pas, which the White House later walked back on, sparked Republican complaints claiming there is no such thing as a 'minor incursion' when it comes to a potential Russian invasion.
U.S. officials have privately reaffirmed to Ukrainian officials, said Kuleba, that they are committed to 'slashing Russia if any type of incursion, invasion, interference takes place.'
Ukrainian leadership is not happy with the way the Biden administration is responding to the threat of Russia invading – specifically as the State Department evacuated embassy staff and their families from Kyiv.
Meanwhile, a top member of the U.S. team negotiating with Iran has left the role after urging a tougher stance on nuclear talks.
A State Department official confirmed that Richard Nephew, known as the architect of sanctions on Tehran, had stepped down as U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Iran.
At the same time, the Wall Street Journal reported that two other negotiators had stepped aside because they wanted a harder negotiating position.
The team's policy differences reportedly involved the enforcement of existing sanctions and even pulling out of the talks altogether.
Their departures, another blow to President Joe Biden's foreign policy goals and a State Department grappling with Russian diplomats who appear poised for conflict in Ukraine, come at a critical time in talks that resumed two months ago.
Western diplomats say they hope for a breakthrough in the coming weeks - but critical differences remain between the two sides and Britain on Tuesday warned of a looming impasse.
Meanwhile the Biden administration has been grappling with bipartisan criticism at home that it's taken too soft a stance against Iran as the Middle Eastern nation builds up its nuclear capabilities at breakneck speed.
A State Department official declined to comment on the specifics of internal policy discussions.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned against world leaders making deals 'behind Ukraine's back' as Russia continues to build-up forces at the border amid rising concerns of an invasion
Russia has already built up a force of more than 100,000 troops at the eastern border of Ukraine and has thousands stationed elsewhere as tensions escalate and concerns rise over a potential Russia invasion of Ukraine
U.S. politicians are pressuring Biden to impose preemptive sanctions on Russia ahead of any potential invasion. Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a video meeting with students of leading Russian universities in Moscow on Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Volodymyr Zelensky is confident that there is not an 'imminent threat' to Ukraine, according to a source close with the Ukraine president.
The source, speaking with BuzzFeed News on Monday, also took aim at the administration telling American citizens in Ukraine to leave the country and pulling embassy staff.
'The fact that the U.S. was the first one to announce this is extremely disappointing,' the source said.
'Quite frankly these Americans are safer in Kyiv than they are in Los Angeles … or any other crime-ridden city in the U.S.,' the Zelensky source added in taking aim at the spiking crime rates in U.S. cities.
On Sunday, the United States ordered the families of its diplomats in the Ukrainian capital Kiev to leave the country 'due to the continued threat' of a Russian invasion, the State Department said.
The administration also warned American citizens in the country to leave on their own, claiming the U.S. government will not be able to evacuate citizens should Russia invade.
'Given that the President has said military action by Russia could come at any time, the US government will not be in a position to evacuate US citizens,' State Department officials said during a press call over the weekend.
'So U.S. citizens currently present in Ukraine should plan accordingly,' they added, suggesting people arrange commercial flights.
The source close to Zelensky said the Ukrainian president's office views Biden's moves as 'utterly ridiculous' and symbolic of 'U.S. inconsistency.'
'On the one hand, [Washington tells Ukraine] how we should democratize. 'We stand with you. It's your right to determine to join the West. We will stand with you against Russian aggression,' the source said in mimicking past messages from the U.S. to Ukraine.
'Then Russia turns up the temperature and they're the first to leave,' the source lamented.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko blasted President Biden on Monday for pulling embassy personnel and relatives out of Kyiv.
'We have taken note of [the State Department]'s decision re departure of family members of [US Embassy in Kiev] staff,' Nikolenko wrote on Twitter in the early hours of Monday morning.
'While we respect right (sic) of foreign nations to ensure safety & security of foreign nations to ensure safety & security of their diplomatic missions, we believe such a step to be a premature one & an instance of excessive caution.'
Nikolenko noted that the European Union is not telling its staff to leave.
Biden's team is preparing contingency plans if Russia cuts off its natural gas or crude oil exports in the event of invasion.
The United States is working with energy producers in the Middle East, Asia and North Africa to ensure Europe has enough supplies in case Russia cuts off availability, a senior administration official noted during a call with reporters Tuesday morning.
American officials are also vowing harsher sanctions from the start should Russia invade its neighbor, taking a much tougher approach than the response to Russian aggression in
