And for the last 90 days, there has been a largely ineffective war of words with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the meantime, Putin was very publicly massing troops surrounding the Ukraine.
Biden announced new sanctions against Russia on Saturday.
“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said as he announced a new set of sanctions that will “impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time.”
The new measures include export blocks on technology. Biden has said that this approach will “severely limit Russia’s ability to advance its military and aerospace sector”. He also applied sanctions on Russian banks and “corrupt billionaires” and their families who have close ties to the Kremlin.
US and EU sanctions on Russia have started, as well. With 1 major Russian bank being taken offline. And the US is threatening to disrupt the Russian banking system by cutting other banks from doing international banking.
Russian invasion becomes a shooting war
In the midst of escalating Ukraine-Russia tensions U.S. government efforts have increased military aid to Ukraine.
