Daily Times

Washington: US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced sanctions against Russian banks and the country’s wealthy elite after what he said was Moscow’s launching of an invasion against Ukraine.

“This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Biden said in a televised speech at the White House.

Biden stressed that the measures were only a “first tranche” in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin “carving out a big chunk of Ukraine.” Biden said that more sanctions will follow if Putin extends Russia’s military grip beyond two small territories in the eastern Donbas region that is already under the control of Russian-backed separatists.

Putin announced Monday that he has recognized the independence of both areas and said the Russian military would mount a so-called “peacekeeping” mission in the territories.

“He’s setting up a rationale to go much further,” Biden said.

The first round of sanctions targeted Russia’s sovereign debt, cutting “off Russia’s government from Western financing,” Biden said. Also targeted are two banks and specific members of the Russian “elites,” he added.

Biden said the United States will continue to send “defensive” weapons to Ukraine’s military but underscored there was “still time” for diplomacy and “to avert the worst-case scenario.” Biden’s tough approach followed an initially more hesitant US response to Putin’s recognition of the two rebel-held enclaves in Ukraine on Monday.

For weeks, the United States and its allies have said that a full invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces massing on its ex-Soviet neighbor’s borders would trigger devastating economic sanctions. But with doubts continuing over Putin’s ultimate intentions after a speech he delivered Monday, it took hours for the Biden administration to shift to a harsher tone.