By Daniel DePetris
The United States is doing what it can to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from ordering another invasion of Ukraine. Despite the cool and collected persona that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to present to his people, the White House still believes Russian military action is “imminent.”
The Biden administration recently put 8,500 American troops on alert for deployment to Eastern Europe. Washington has spent the last several weeks trying to convince the Kremlin that any incursion into its neighbor would be costly. On Tuesday, the US sent a third shipment of lethal equipment to the Ukrainian military, including 300 additional Javelin anti-tank missiles. This comes on top of the 200,000 pounds of lethal aid that had already been provided by Washington.
The United States is also telegraphing the economic repercussions Russia would face after an invasion. Possible sanctions include everything from cutting off Russia’s largest banks from the US-dominated global financial system to forbidding any company from exporting semiconductors to Russia that use American-designed technology. “The gradualism of the past is out,” a US official told reporters this week. Instead of making the sanctions stronger over time, the official continued, “we’ll start at the top of the escalation ladder.”
This piece was originally published in Spectator on January 26, 2022. Read more HERE.