BRUSSELS — Promising to surge new aid and weapons to Ukraine, and urging unity as the best strategy to counter Russia’s war against Kyiv, President Joe Biden then went a step further, indicating that trans-Atlantic leaders were prepared to respond “in kind” to a Russian chemical weapons attack.
U.S. officials have warned for weeks that Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing strategic and military setbacks in Ukraine, could soon move beyond regular warfare, tipping the conflict into a dirty war.
After back-to-back meetings with trans-Atlantic leaders, Biden drew the strongest line yet Thursday when he would neither commit nor rule out a like-for-like response if Putin used biological weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine.
“We would respond. We would respond if he uses it, and the nature of the response would depend on the nature of use,” Biden told reporters in a press conference at NATO headquarters.
Asked to clarify whether chemical weapons use in Ukraine would trigger a military response from NATO, the president said, “It would trigger a response in kind.”
“Whether or not — you’re asking whether NATO would cross. We’d make that decision at the time,” he added.
UKRAINE HOPES BIDEN AND NATO CAN GO BEYOND SYMBOLISM IN SUMMIT ON RUSSIA’S WAR
The message erased the ambiguity some saw in a statement issued by NATO heads of state and government just hours earlier.
The bloc had warned that any use of a chemical weapon by Russia “would be unacceptable and result in severe consequences,” which one European ambassador told the Washington Examiner left open to interpretation the nature of the response or whether it would include an attack inside Ukraine, which falls outside the alliance’s defense pact.
Biden paired his warning to Putin with a message that Washington is not acting alone when it sets out to punish Moscow.
“The single most important thing we have to do is be united,” Biden told reporters at the alliance headquarters in Belgium. The president had just spent 1 1/2 hours with his close advisers, debriefing after meeting with dozens of heads of state and government to discuss the war in Ukraine and security on the European continent.
Despite promising to pursue a strategy of alignment, Biden conceded some challenges in getting allies and partners on the same page. He said G-20 members were not aligned on whether to boot Russia from the forum and that Indonesia stood in the way.
“That was raised today,” Biden said. “I raised the possibility. If that can’t be done, if Indonesia and others do not agree, then we should, in my view, ask to have … Ukraine be able to attend the meetings.”
The European diplomat said the strategy had so far proved fruitful, routing Russia’s economy through a slate of coordinated Western sanctions — penalties on a major economy that were unprecedented. The crisis had also drawn the alliance closer together.
“What [Putin] wanted was less NATO — he’s getting a lot more NATO,” the official said.
Biden’s push for a united front drew criticism that unity alone would not suffice to drive Russia from Ukraine.
“The president said that these summits won’t deter Putin and instead emphasized the importance of ‘unity.’ Look, that’s not good enough,” Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse said in response to Biden’s remarks. “‘Unity’ is certainly important, but it’s insufficient because ‘unity’ isn’t a strategy to win.”
“Talking more, about unity or anything else, won’t help Ukraine defeat Russian invaders. The president still needs to outline a strategy for Zelensky to win and Putin to lose,” he added.
Biden has said repeatedly that he will not send U.S. troops to Ukraine, working instead to counter Russia with economic punishment intended to drive up the cost of Putin’s war. The president bristled when asked whether the actions the leaders announced Thursday, including a new set of sanctions, could halt Putin’s war when the threat of them failed to stop Russian tanks from rolling into Ukraine.
“I did not say that in fact the sanctions would deter him,” Biden said. “Sanctions never deter.”
In February, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had said, “The president believes that sanctions are intended to deter.”
Biden said Thursday that coordinated and consistent pressure on Putin would, in time, drive him to stop the war.
“That’s what will stop him,” he said. “The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world to stay focused on what a brute this guy is. That’s the important thing.”
Biden denied being too quick to rule out direct military intervention in the conflict and whether this could have emboldened the Russian leader.
“No and no,” he said.
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The Biden administration has instead pursued tactics to avoid any hint of direct confrontation with Russia. One measure has been the release of alleged intelligence reports, including of possible Russian attacks.
In an interview with CNN this week, Putin’s spokesman refused to rule out whether Russia would use nuclear weapons in the face of an “existential threat.” Dmitry Peskov then said Putin had “not yet” achieved his military goals in Ukraine.
The Biden administration pushed back on Peskov’s “dangerous” comments Tuesday. “It’s not the way a responsible nuclear power should act,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said.
Putin has hinted at the possibility of using nuclear weapons. In a televised statement last month, he said, “No matter who tries to stand in our way or all the more so create threats for our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.”
The latest warnings have heightened fears among allies of what comes next.
“The nuclear threats — these are serious considerations for a guy that people thought wouldn’t invade Ukraine and then went ahead and did it,” the European official said. “There is a serious question mark about how [Putin] achieves whatever military goals he has set for himself.”
