invasion of Russia
USA: Putin has not yet achieved any fundamental war goals
Jake Sullivan speaks during a press briefing at the White House. Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP/dpa
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Ahead of Biden’s Europe trip, the US government ordered Russia’s war in Ukraine. Putin has not yet achieved any fundamental goals. New sanctions could also be announced.
According to the US government, Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far not been able to achieve any of the three basic goals in his war of aggression against Ukraine.
“First, Ukraine should be subdued, second, Russian power and prestige should be strengthened, and third, the West should be divided and weakened,” US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at the White House on Tuesday . Russia has “so far achieved the opposite”. However, before Biden’s trip to Europe, Sullivan also warned that the war would continue.
“Hard days will come to Ukraine, hardest for Ukrainian troops on the front lines and for civilians under Russian fire,” the national security adviser said. “This war will end neither easily nor quickly.”
Biden embarks on a European trip
Because of the Ukraine war, Biden is leaving for a trip to Europe this Wednesday. It is Biden’s third trip to Europe since taking office in January 2021. He will initially attend the summits of NATO, the EU and the leading democratic economic powers (G7) in Brussels on Thursday. Biden will continue to Warsaw on Friday. A bilateral meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda is planned for Saturday. According to the White House, the meeting will deal with the humanitarian crisis triggered by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
During his trip to Poland, Biden also wants to visit US troops stationed in the country. “From Brussels, President Biden will travel to Poland where he will meet with US troops currently helping to defend NATO territory,” Sullivan said. According to US figures, around 100,000 US soldiers are stationed or deployed in Europe. In the past few months, Biden had relocated thousands of additional soldiers from the USA to Europe in view of the conflict with Russia.
More sanctions against Russia coming soon
When asked if the US government was planning more troop deployments to Europe, Sullivan said the number was reasonable at the moment. “But of course that can change in the coming days and weeks, depending on Russia’s actions and the general threat situation,” he said. That is also an issue at the NATO summit on Thursday.
According to the White House, the United States and its Western allies could announce further sanctions against Russia at the summit. It’s about “another sanctions package,” he said. An important element will be tightening the existing punitive measures to make it even more difficult for Moscow to circumvent the sanctions, Sullivan said.