New Delhi: US President Joe Biden on late Thursday (February 24) night made his first address since Russia launched ''military operation'' in Ukraine earlier today.
Attacking Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden said, "Putin is the aggressor, Putin chose war". 'He added that the US will impose additional sanctions and export controls against Russia for invading Ukraine. "US, allies are blocking assets of four large Russian banks, imposing export controls, sanctioning oligarchs," Biden said.
"Export controls will 'cut off more than half of Russia's high-tech imports," the US President further said.
Biden reiterated that the US will not send its troops to Ukraine but will 'defend every inch of NATO territory'. "Our forces are not and will not be engaged in a conflict with Russia in Ukraine. Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine but to defend and reassure NATO allies," Biden said.
Denying any plan to talk to Putin, Biden said, "I have no plans to talk to Russian President Putin. He wants to re-establish the former Soviet Union, I think his ambition our completely contrary to the place where the rest of the world has arrived."
Meanwhile, after the meeting of G7 leaders, the US President had said in a tweet that the leaders have agreed to move forward on "devastating packages of sanctions" and other economic measures to hold Russia accountable for invading Ukraine. "This morning, I met with my G7 counterparts to discuss President Putin’s unjustified attack on Ukraine and we agreed to move forward on devastating packages of sanctions and other economic measures to hold Russia to account", Biden said in a tweet.
US President Biden had also convened a meeting of the National Security Council in the White House Situation Room to discuss the "unprovoked and unjustified attack" on Ukraine, where he also deliberated on how to hold Russia accountable for its large-scale attack on Ukraine, the White House had informed earlier.
After blasts were heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Thursday, Biden had said that the United States and its allies will respond in a united and decisive way to "an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces" on Ukraine.
(With agency inputs)
