US President Joe Biden said he thinks Vladimir Putin doesn’t want a full-blown war but will “move in” on Ukraine after amassing 100,000 troops on its border, part of an extraordinarily blunt assessment of Russian intentions and the West’s likely response. “I’m not so sure he has—is certain—about what he’s going to do,” Biden said of his Russian counterpart during a nearly two hour-long news conference Wednesday marking his first year in office. “My guess is he will move in, he has to do something.”
While the president said the U.S. and its European allies are united on making sure Russia faces “severe economic consequences,” Biden acknowledged what his top aides have so far said only in private: that NATO allies are divided about what to do if Russia takes action against Ukraine that falls short of an invasion.
“I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades,” Biden said. “And it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do.” If Putin chooses to continue or ramp up cyberattacks on Ukraine, Biden said, “we can respond the same way, with cyber.”
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