WASHINGTON — Tension is mounting every day between Ukraine and Russia as the Russians have assembled around 100,000 troops of the country’s border with Ukraine.
The international community is feeling the threat of invasion by Russia growing, and the White House has sent U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Ukraine this week to meet with Ukrainian leaders, his Russian counterpart, and NATO allies in an effort to defuse the tension.
“One of the things that’s really important that we do is that we incentivize and encourage this president to be resolute as we deal with the current situation (in Ukraine),” said Sen. Todd Young (R-IN). “This could be a fulcrum moment in world politics and international relations.”
President Biden said in his solo press briefing on Wednesday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have had “frank discussions.” Biden is confident that if Russia invades Ukraine imposing sanctions would be effective in curtailing Russia’s aggression.
“The idea that NATO is not going to be united I don’t buy,” said the president. “I’ve spoken to every major NATO leader. We’ve had the NATO-Russian summit. I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable.”
Young agrees with the president that a strong message needs to be sent to Russia.
“If a message is not sent to Vladimir Putin, the strongest possible message, that every encroachment he makes will be met with incredible pain in order to dissuade his encroachments, then this not only sends a message to our allies … it also sends a message to other thugs and autocrats around the world who have designs on other pieces of territory,” Young said.
Young said now is a time to encourage and hope the president is successful in de-escalating tensions between the two countries.
When President Biden was pressed about whether he still thinks that Putin doesn’t want another Cold War, he said he may want to “test” NATO but will regret it. Putin has said he wants assurances that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO.
