The United States and Western countries urged unity Thursday after President Joe Biden suggested countries were split over any future “minor incursion” from Russia, according to Reuters.
State of play: Russia has stationed 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders.
- Moscow has planned some joint military drills in Belarus, raising suspicion of a potential invasion of Ukraine.
- Biden administration said it will send $200 million in defensive military aid to Ukraine, per the Associated Press.
- Biden said he has been clear with Putin that there will be consequences if Russia invades Ukraine.
The news: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for unity from the United States and Western countries as it faces a potential invasion from Russia, The Daily Beast reports.
- “We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones,” he said.
Flashback: President Biden said Wednesday in a press conference that he predicts Russian President Vladimir Putin will order an invasion of Ukraine, The New York Times reports.
- “Russia will be held accountable if it invades, and it depends on what it does. It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion, and then we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, etc.,” he said.
- “Do I think he’ll test the West, test the United States and NATO, as significantly as he can? Yes, I think he will,” Biden said in a two-hour news conference at the White House’s East Room.
- “But I think he will pay a serious and dear price for it that he doesn’t think now will cost him what it’s going to cost him. And I think he will regret having done it.”
What’s next: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to Geneva to meet with his Russian counterpart to discuss the situation, according to BBC News.