Joe Biden predicts Russia will ‘encroach’ into Ukraine

In the administration’s clearest analysis yet of Russian President Putin’s plans, President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he believes Russia will invade Ukraine.

“I guess he’s going to move in,” Biden said of Putin at his first press conference in about 10 months. “He has to do something.”

But Biden also reiterated that Russia would face major economic consequences if Putin launched an invasion. “He’s never seen sanctions like the ones I promised would be imposed if he moved,” Biden said, though he also indicated that sanctions would vary by severity. attack that Putin carried out.

“It’s one thing if it’s a small encroachment and we end up having to fight over what to do and what not to do,” the president said.

Biden’s analysis comes after months of observing that Russia is amassing hundreds of thousands of troops and equipment along its border with Ukraine.

But the administration’s assessments have mostly fluctuated over whether Putin really decided to invade Ukraine.

ONE senior management officials told The Daily Beast this week that they expect the action to take place between mid-January and mid-February. The official said that Putin is planning to use Russian agents to conduct sabotage operations against Russian forces in order to create a pretext to attack Ukraine.

In recent days, the calculus for Russia seems to have changed to some extent – Russia has deployed troops to Belarus, ostensibly as part of “exercises”. But a senior State Department official said on Tuesday’s call that Russia may be using Belarus as a way to launch an attack on Ukraine from the north.

“The timing is remarkable and of course raises concerns that Russia may intend to station troops in Belarus under the guise of joint exercises… to potentially attack Ukraine from the north,” the senior Russian official said. The US State Department said.

Larry Pfeiffer, former senior director of the White House Situation Room and former CIA director, said given the large number of troops entering Ukraine that Russia has coordinated in recent days – and the increase in costs – action military seems very viable. Staff.

“The amount of military deployments going on is incredibly large. It’s an incredible expenditure of money and resources by the Russians,” Pfeiffer told The Daily Beast. “There can be an argument to be made that at a certain point, that kind of spending, you’re going to move all that stuff there, you’re going to continue to take military action.”

At this rate, Putin could strike Ukraine “in a very short time,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Wednesday during a visit in Kiev, Ukraine.